A tax on hotel rooms in Dublin is being developed by a county-wide local authority team, with suggestions it could be in place by September.
The county’s four local authorities have planned a united front for legislation that would clear the way for tourists to be charged an extra fee as part of their bill.
Green Party Councillor on Dublin City Council Hazel Chu said this is “two years in the making” and has cross-party support.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, she said that issues in Dublin city – such as a shortage of public toilets and street cleaning – are often down to a lack of money.
“People who live in Dublin pay LPT (Local Property Tax) so tourists coming in should pay their little bit of a share,” she said.
While they do not have an exact figure as to how much the tax could raise, she said, they estimate it to be a minimum of €12 million for Dublin city alone.
“That’s 250 extra street cleaners, it’s perhaps 50 public toilets. These are all things that we need.”
Director of Dublin’s Skylon Hotel Micheal Lennon said there are “no grounds” for introducing a tourist tax.
Speaking on the same programme, he said that councils need to look at what they are spending and budgeting for.
Hotels “need to be competitive” and remain sustainable, he added.
“We’re already paying 13.5% VAT, that’s already on the invoice. This makes Ireland less attractive as a destination, we’re putting more and more taxes on ourselves. It’s something that shouldn’t be done.”
Cllr Chu said Dublin city and county is not attracting enough tourism and the money could be ring-fenced to help encourage visitors, as well as for basic services such as public toilets.
“If you’re a tourist walking around the city right now on a great day like today, it’s glorious,” she said.
“But when you see the amount of rubbish, or you see streets not being cleaned, or you’re running from place to place and you realise there’s not a public toilet, the first thing you think is ‘why would I not go to any one of the 18 countries in the EU that has better facilities because they do have this tourist tax and spend my money there’.
“This is going to be quite a small amount and its not passed to the hoteliers. It’s passed to tourists who come to our country and use our networks and parks and museums and we’re asking them to pay quite a small amount … it’s something that all other countries do.”
Mr Lennon disagreed and said tourism in Dublin is “very strong”, adding that Ireland needs a “sustainable type of tourism” and he does not believe this is a sustainable route.
Ireland “doesn’t have to copy everything” that Europe does, he said.
“We have a great little country here, we have great experiences and we’re funding them very well.”
Cllr Chu said the tax would go back to making sure local government has sufficient revenue and ways to raise its own revenue.
She said that Ireland “relies so much on Corporation Tax” and local authorities rely too much on central Government to provide them with money “which they don’t. So either they give us the money or we raise it ourselves, and we need to start raising it to put back into our cities.
“I want a summer where people enjoy the cities.”
Tourist tax ‘last thing we need to do’ – Minister
Minister for Arts, Culture, Media, Sport and Communications Patrick O’Donovan has said he would not welcome a tourist tax and “the last thing we need to do” is to add more costs to people.
He said councils can come together and propose the idea, but ultimately the levying of tax is an issue for the Minister for Finance.
Also speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, the minister said local authorities have revenue raising streams and it is up to them to either retain their Local Property Tax at a particular rate or cut it.
He also said he disagrees with Cllr Chu’s comments about the capital.
“I don’t see the dirty, filthy city that she’s talking about. I work on the southside of Dublin and I stay on the northside and that’s not the city that I stay in. I see a very welcoming and well-presented city,” he said.
“Of course you can make it better, but putting a tax on people and telling them we’re going to make their trip to Dublin even more expensive than it is at the moment?
“A lot of people that come up with these ideas don’t sit down with hoteliers or publicans,” he added.
“The last thing we need is another tax that’s going to make people feel more unwelcome. They’ll stay in Wicklow or Kildare, or maybe go to Cork or Galway, and wouldn’t that be totally counter-productive for the Dublin tourism industry?”
