Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

While elements of the hospitality sector are definitely part of the wider tourism ecosystem, I do not have responsibility for general hospitality or food services which are under the remit of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney. That is why we have a joint tourism and hospitality forum. We met the stakeholders of that forum a fortnight ago. The real call we are hearing is for the split in VAT but ultimately that is a matter for the Minister for Finance. I know that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Enterprise said in recent discussions that the issue probably cannot be revisited outside the actual budget and he asked the hospitality sector to look at gathering hard data. Again, this lies with him and I know what they are really looking for is the split VAT.