Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an bheirt chuig an choiste. Sa gcéad dul síos, ó thaobh ICTU de in terms of the 9% VAT rate, after leaving the ploughing championships yesterday I travelled to Monaghan, where I stayed last night. The reason for that was that Dublin was booked out. I looked quickly at where Dublin stands today and it is booked out again. Well, it is not really booked out. If one is happy to pay €605 for the Fitzwilliam Hotel or €300 for Jury's one may get a bed, but those are the last beds available at this point in time. We will not, in our alternative budget, argue for a complete reduction of the 9% VAT rate. However, the portion in terms of hotel beds is not sustainable, given that we have the highest occupancy rates in Europe and that we have seen bed prices increase by around 6% last year. If we look at ICTU's proposal, the idea is to take the €500 million that it brings in. However, approximately €189 million of that relates to hotel beds. Does the witness think that there is more merit in going after the hotel beds as opposed to other parts of the sector, which includes food and beverages and so on? Other parts of that 9% are also not sustainable, for example, newspapers.