Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It seems bizarre that the reason beauty salon services, unlike hairdressing services, do not qualify for the reduced rate of VAT is that they are regarded as services providing care of the human body. Beauty salons should be included in the VAT reduction because hairdressers and beauticians are basically sister professions and often work out of the same premises. Beauticians find it difficult to understand why hairdressers will benefit from the reduction but they will not. It is unfair. I know the Government is trying to do the best it can to manage through the Covid crisis but this issue shows how nonsensical the approach is. There could be two practitioners using the same premises and one would qualify for the reduction while the other would not, simply because of a definition contained in an EU directive. It is unfair and the Minister should look at some way of alleviating that.