Hike to fuel tax is main budget hit

MIXED REACTION TO BUDGET WITH NO RELIEF FOR KERRY ON TOURISM V.A.T

THERE has been a mixed reaction to the 2020 budget which though it contained few shocks will offer little comfort to many in rural Ireland.

In the short term motorists and smokers will be the hardest hit with a €6 per tonne hike on carbon tax and a 50 cent a pack hike on cigarettes kicking in with immediate effect.

The carbon tax hike – which will see about €1 to €1.20 added to the cost of filling a petrol or diesel tank – has predictably and understandably caused dismay among those that drive for a living.

Hauliers and delivery firms along with coach operators and taxi drivers will be facing a significant financial hit.

Homeowners will also be hit though not until May next year when the price of home heating fuels will rise by an equivalent rate.

There was good news for publicans with no increase in the cost of alcohol – supposedly due to fears over post Brexit border smuggling, though this rationale hasn’t been cited in the case of tobacco – though the news was less god for the wider hospitality sector.

Despite widespread calls for its reintroduction Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe resisted lobbying to bring back the special nine per cent VAT rate for the hospitality industry.

Just last week the Chair of the Irish Hotel Federation’s Kerry Branch Bernadette Randles said that a return to the nine per cent rate would be vital if the hospitality sector is to meet the serious challenges posed by an increasingly likely ‘No Deal’ Brexit.

“We continue to face increasingly high costs of doing business which have been compounded by the Government’s decision to increase the tourism VAT in last year’s Budget. As a result, Ireland now has a higher rate of VAT on tourism accommodation than 27 countries in Europe with which we compete, making us less attractive as a destination,” Ms Randles said.

In terms of healthcare the head of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation Phil Ní Sheaghdha – who hails from Ceann Trá in west Kerry – said that the budget did not go far enough to address the needs of the health service.

“This is a business-as-usual budget. It’s not the game changer frontline health workers need to end overcrowding and bring staffing up to safe levels,” she said.

“We’ve been bandaging up the health service for far too long. It needs long-term, systemic change, but that comes with an upfront cost. The Sláintecare report set out a clear funding plan to transition to a new system, but the €3 billion transition fund is nowhere to be seen,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha said.

“New homecare supports are welcome and much-needed, as there have been very few approved since May.

“We now need to lift the HSE’s disastrous recruitment pause, if we are to make any dent in the hospital overcrowding crisis. There are over 1,300 unfilled nursing and midwifery vacancies in the public health service,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha.