{"id":512282,"date":"2026-06-22T08:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T08:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/512282\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T08:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T08:27:15","slug":"minister-has-no-difficulty-with-powers-for-cities-to-introduce-tourism-tax-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/512282\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister has \u2018no difficulty\u2019 with powers for cities to introduce tourism tax \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Housing James Browne has said he has \u201cno difficulty\u201d with powers being given to cities who want to introduce a so-called \u201ctourism <\/a>tax\u201d despite opposition from hoteliers.<\/p>\n

A nightly levy imposed on tourists is a feature of many European cities and has been considered in Dublin, but would require a change at the national level in order to give councils the power to impose such a step. <\/p>\n

It comes in advance of a Fianna F\u00e1il motion in the Seanad this week calling on the Government to advance legislation to empower local authorities to introduce a visitor levy on paid overnight accommodation <\/a>in their areas.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Browne, who also has responsibility for local government, said in advance of the motion that he \u201chas no difficulty with the introduction of such a levy if the city councils felt it would work\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking recently in the Seanad, Senator Mary Fitzpatrick \u2013 who will be among those putting down this week\u2019s motion \u2013 said such a tax is \u201ccommon internationally\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s parliamentary party supported a proposal from Dublin North-West TD Paul McAuliffe to allow for a visitor accommodation levy in the capital, while the party\u2019s Senators will put down a motion in the Seanad this week. <\/p>\n

\"\"Ireland gears up for EU presidency and Andy Burnham sweeps Makerfield byelection<\/p>\n

McAuliffe\u2019s plan envisaged such a step for Dublin only, but wider legislation could allow other councils to introduce a levy. It is anticipated that Browne would be responsible for such legislation, but that Minister for Finance Simon Harris would also play a significant role.<\/p>\n

The introduction of a tourist tax regime <\/a>would face opposition from hoteliers at least, while Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke and Minister for Culture Patrick O\u2019Donovan have previously indicated concerns over such a step. <\/p>\n

However, there is support on the Fine Gael backbenches for such a move, including from the party\u2019s Dublin spokesman James Geoghegan, who represents Dublin Bay South and has said he supports a \u201cmodest\u201d levy with revenues ring-fenced for Dublin city. <\/p>\n

Spokesmen for Harris and Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin did not respond last week to queries concerning such a tax.<\/p>\n

The Irish Hotels Federation <\/a>(IHF) said there are \u201cno grounds for introducing an additional tourist tax on Irish consumers and overseas visitors\u201d. <\/p>\n

Against a backdrop of rising costs for the industry, an IHF spokeswoman said putting a new tax in place \u201cmakes no sense, particularly at a time when we are trying to make Ireland stand out as an attractive destination for visitors. A bedroom tax would also mean less money for tourists to spend in downstream tourism businesses and less money when tourists go on to visit and stay in other parts of the country.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hoteliers <\/a>were also sharply critical of plans introduced by Dublin City Council to double the development levy on hotels, which will take place from next month.<\/p>\n

The group said that introducing the change would increase the charge from \u20ac2.5 million to \u20ac5 million for a new-build hotel of about 20,000sq m. Advocates of the move said that increasing the levy would direct more money towards home building, against a backdrop of concern over the development of sites in Dublin for tourist accommodation rather than permanent homes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Housing James Browne has said he has \u201cno difficulty\u201d with powers being given to cities who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[895,3775,61,60,37728,7116,43,6306,32863],"class_list":["post-512282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fianna-fail","tag-fine-gael","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-hotels-federation","tag-james-browne","tag-news","tag-tourism","tag-tourism-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512282","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=512282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}