Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I was wondering how I would address this Bill so I will speak from my personal experience as somebody who is in business and currently going through this process. The tourism sector has faced many challenges over a number of decades. The big one we all remember was in 1969 when the Troubles in the North started. They had a seismic impact on the overseas market in Ireland because it more or less shut down overnight. It took us nearly 20 years, until the Good Friday Agreement, to move on from that.

The other crisis that had a brief impact was the foot and mouth disease in 2001. In between, we had several recessions and other issues to deal with but this is the first time ever in our family's lifetime in business that an issue has shut us down. Covid-19 has brought our business, and the entire tourism sector, almost to a standstill for four months. It has nothing to do with the economic situation or anything like that. We could go back to the 1970s when VAT was introduced. My father was paying nearly 22% or 23% in overdraft rates and it was almost impossible to do business. However, I believe we have learned from the troubles we faced in the past that we need to react to crises when they arise. I have to give credit where credit is due. The Government stood up with regard to supporting businesses affected by Covid-19. Without the assistance we have received from the Government to date, we would not have been in a position to stay in business and we would definitely not have been in a position to reopen our doors a little over a month ago.

A key pillar in all of that support was the TWSS. Senator D'Arcy, who was here with me last week, said that we need to drop the "T". The Minister of State may have had inside information that the rest of us did not have but the "T" is gone and it is now the EWSS. That has to be welcomed because that is the foundation allowing businesses across Ireland reopen their doors. To have it as a guarantee for the next six months is a great incentive for us to keep going and it gives us hope that we can get beyond the current situation. I will address that on Committee Stage. I have a specific issue about the scheme but, overall, it is the key measure that has allowed us open our doors and it has to be welcomed by all Members.

I also welcome other tax measures in the Bill. I am looking forward to seeing how the stay and spend measure will work. I welcome that it is targeted at the off season because we all know that once the children return to school the tourism industry will suffer drastically as we have nothing to fill that void that was the international market. This is targeted from 1 October and I hope it will generate over and above spending that would not have happened at the time.

Equally, I hope that the Revenue has this famous "app" available, which I am interested in, and that we will not be hanging around waiting for its development because that is the direction we are going in. It will be great to see how incentive schemes like that one can work through modern technology because that will open the door to us targeting specific credits into the future.

I refer to the creative thinking around the corporation tax losses, which is no cost to the State but allows a company that operated at a profit but will not operate at a profit this year to offset those losses against last year's profits. As the Minister of State said, that is a direct cash injection into the business and it has to be welcomed.

The upgrade of the restart grant to €25,000 is a help. The waiving of commercial rates for another three months is welcome also.

These are very welcome measures that address the short-term problem but for the October economic statement we need to address some of the medium and long-term impacts being faced by the tourism sector.

The reduction in VAT is welcome. My own sector is disappointed that the tourism sector was not included in that. Senator D'Arcy might have a different viewpoint from me on that. I do not believe the sector is viewing the VAT reduction on this occasion as a stimulus package. We are looking at it as a survival method that allows us increase our margin to the bottom line. It is probably a measure that will be needed when the EWSS is withdrawn and the extra money in respect of the restart grant is no longer available.

We need to look honestly at what is happening across Europe. Some 28 countries in Europe have a lower VAT rate than Ireland. Our neighbour, the UK, dropped its rate to 5%. That was our largest overseas market in the tourism sector. It has now experienced two hits. When Brexit was announced, sterling dropped by 15%. That made the UK market 15% more attractive than Ireland and we offer a very similar product. It has now dropped the VAT rate by 8.5%. We need to address that moving forward. I am aware Sinn Féin has a motion on that later, and I will probably speak on the issue again.

The industry needs to unite now across all sectors, not just pubs, hotels and restaurants. The tourism industry goes way beyond that and has a major impact.We need to come together and make the case to the Minister in respect of the October statement. We must emphasise how important that VAT reduction is for the sustainability, viability and competitiveness of our industry in the future. The €10,000 increase in the help-to-buy scheme is welcome. It is to be hoped it will re-energise the construction market until Christmas.

I have addressed most of my issues at this stage so I will leave it at that. I will come back in when I have the opportunity on Committee Stage.