{"id":527973,"date":"2026-07-01T17:49:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527973\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T17:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:49:20","slug":"hospitality-vat-cut-unlikely-to-reduce-the-price-of-coffee-restaurant-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527973\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospitality VAT cut unlikely to ‘reduce the price of coffee’ – restaurant owner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner of a restaurant in Sligo has predicted that the Government\u2019s VAT cut for the hospitality sector is unlikely to \u2018reduce the price of a cup of coffee\u2019 – but it will create jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the VAT rate for food businesses and hairdressers falls from 13.5% to 9%, following years of campaigning from the sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris predicted that the measure would \u201chelp thousands of businesses across Ireland and in turn will help secure approximately 150,000 jobs right across the country.”<\/p>\n

On The Claire Byrne Show<\/a>, restaurant owner Anthony Gray said the 13.5% VAT rate and cost of living crisis have left the restaurant sector \u201con its knees\u201d, adding that he is delighted with VAT reduction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’ll create jobs,\u201d he predicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think the Government and the T\u00e1naiste realise that; it’s not about reducing the price of a cup of coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price of everything has gone through the roof, but what it will do is it’ll give us a little bit of wiggle room.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" A restaurant in Galway. Picture by: Alamy.com.<\/p>\n

As a result of the huge surge in inflation over a period of several years, Mr Gray said there are now \u201cenormous costs of running a restaurant\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of food has gone through the roof,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInflation has gone through the roof; even here in the house myself with three kids, I see the price of stuff going through the roof.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will help us to keep our doors open, keep jobs open, keep families that are working in the hospitality industry, keep them employed and look after them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, Mr Gray described the VAT cut as a \u201cvital measure\u201d and promised that the industry will \u201cpass it on in some instance\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we want people coming through the doors – that’s how we survive,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t get paid weekly; we get paid when people come in through our doors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we will be able to pass it on with incentives – as I do here in Sligo with a pre-theatre dinner menu and coming up with different specials and buying stuff from local suppliers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s fantastic; fair play to the Government, I have a chance now of hanging on and staying open.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Main image: A woman cup of coffee. Picture by: Alamy.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of a restaurant in Sligo has predicted that the Government\u2019s VAT cut for the hospitality sector…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-527973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527973","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=527973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}