{"id":409389,"date":"2026-04-21T03:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409389\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T03:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:59:17","slug":"the-e5-tourist-tax-for-dublin-is-absurd-and-will-only-increase-cost-pressures-on-hotels-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409389\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u20ac5 tourist tax for Dublin is absurd and will only increase cost pressures on hotels \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having been a hotelier all my career, I was never one to get too exercised about short-term events. Business in general takes a longer-term view on what\u2019s happening in the world economy and avoids short-term, knee-jerk reactions. <\/p>\n

If you responded to every event you would end up causing more problems than you would solve. If your vision and strategy are correct, keep total focus on that and do not get distracted.<\/p>\n

As I look at things today the single biggest issue is the cost of doing business. Some of these costs are driven by market conditions but many are driven by government initiatives. <\/p>\n

Businesses stay in business if they make a profit and they grow if they give over investment. Capital is fluid and can move anywhere. Whether we like it or not capital will move to where it gets the best return.<\/p>\n

I spent 52 years of my life in the business of hotels. It\u2019s a tough business at the best of times and cost pressures are a constant. Revenues can be erratic with an inconsistent flow and margin erosion can cripple a hospitality business.<\/p>\n

The notion that with all these cost pressures that we can now add a further layer of cost in the form of a bed\/tourist\/hotel tax (call it what you will) in Dublin is simply absurd.<\/p>\n

I know the response will be it\u2019s only a few euro and the tourist will pay it but it is not as simple as that. <\/p>\n

Systems will have to be set up to collect this tax. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Could a \u20ac5 tourist tax help solve Dublin\u2019s problems? Conor Pope vs Eoghan O\u2019Mara WalshOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Who will pay for the cost of compliance? Is there a VAT issue to be dealt with? Will the proposed tax also apply to all accommodation providers like Airbnb, short-term lets, student accommodation that turns into a tourist let during the summer? Or will it just be hotels? <\/p>\n

Market inequality is not good if hotels will bear the brunt of the tax. <\/p>\n

Hotels break their business down into market segments such as tour operators, corporate, airline events and transient leisure and corporate. Your typical urban hotel will have 60-80 per cent of its business contracted for each year at a certain price. <\/p>\n

So it will be difficult to collect further money from this contracted business.<\/p>\n

Hotels contribute significantly to local authorities in the form of commercial rates. A typical hotel in Dublin pays commercial rates of about \u20ac1,000 a year per bedroom and on top of that many hotels pay an additional 5 per cent levy to Dublin Town towards the upkeep of the city. <\/p>\n

Rather than introduce a new tax, why not adjust the annual rate on valuation? This would spread the burden across all commercial rates payers and would be revenue neutral to the administration.<\/p>\n

Another interesting fact is our councils no longer provide public toilets, so hotels and pubs end up providing this community service free of charge.<\/p>\n

Hotels are not the only beneficiary from tourist activity. The retail sector, pubs, restaurants, taxis, and all the other small businesses that would not exist without tourist activity benefit greatly from overseas visitors and city events. But the biggest winner from tourist activity is the exchequer.<\/p>\n

Hotels spend large amounts of money in marketing Ireland and their hotels overseas with fantastic support from Tourism Ireland, F\u00e1ilte Ireland and tour and event operators. Without this activity, there would be less employment and far fewer receipts collected by Government.<\/p>\n

Councils should focus on collecting outstanding taxes rather than introducing a new levy. If recent media reports are true there are millions of euro due to councils in various taxes. Just to mention one, the derelict sites levy, of which very little if anything has been collected.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on the tourist tax: visible return needed for DublinOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The focus is often on the prices hotels charge. For a relatively small portion of their business, prices do fluctuate. When demand is high prices go up, when demand is low prices come down. It\u2019s very dynamic. <\/p>\n

But much of the business in Ireland, and worldwide, is two years out at heavily discounted rates, and many businesses here see the cost as a supply and demand dynamic.<\/p>\n

In Ireland we are often compared unfavourably to overseas destinations. However, from an international perspective we are considered to be good value. Of course, if you choose a certain destination you will compare on accommodation, food and wine prices and do well in comparison. <\/p>\n

Many of the overseas destinations have a much lower cost base than Ireland. I was in Portugal last October and the minimum wage had gone up to just over \u20ac1,000 per month based on a typical working week. The equivalent wage in Ireland is \u20ac2,689. Yet the prices at the five-star accommodation where I stayed were no cheaper than Ireland.<\/p>\n

I have an undiminished passion and love for the hotel trade. I will continue to engage on matters that concern me and will fight for the business that has absorbed my entire life. And that includes arguing against this tourist tax. <\/p>\n

Pat McCann was a founder and chief executive of Dalata, Ireland\u2019s largest hotel chain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having been a hotelier all my career, I was never one to get too exercised about short-term events.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,14145,615,15940,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-409389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dalata","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-hotels","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}