(Donegal South-West): Over the past number of weeks the Minister has met representatives from various sectors of the tourism industry, and among the issues discussed were proposals in this year's budget, and Finance Bill, likely to impact on their business.
The fundamental purpose of the budget was to provide for the orderly development of the public finances in the current year. This, and the other economic management measures taken by the Government since the beginning of the year, have had the effect of substantially reducing interest rates to the benefit of the tourism sector as well as other businesses.
As a result of the Minister's post budget discussions with the industry, the Government decided to defer the increase in the VAT rate on car hire to 21 per cent announced in the budget. The Government also decided to add a deferral scheme to the vehicle registration repayment scheme being introduced in the Finance Bill to help ease the cost to car hire firms of increasing supply of hire cars for the peak season. These modifications should go a long way towards meeting concerns expressed about car hire supply for the coming and future tourist seasons.
The industry has also welcomed the proposal in the Finance Bill to include tourism as one of the eligible sectors under the new seed capital scheme, which should be a significant incentive for small to medium sized enterprises in the sector. The positive, pro-jobs provisions in the Finance Bill will provide a significant incentive to business, together with reduced interest rates, to proceed with developments which will benefit wealth creation and jobs in the tourism sector.