DublinTown has called on the Government to provide certainty to the business community by making an immediate decision on whether to cancel this year’s St Patrick’s Festival.
The organisation says that many of its members, including city centre hotels, restaurants, bars and retailers, urgently need to assess and decide on staffing and stock levels, and fear that they will take an unnecessary hit due to a festival cancellation at the last minute.
In the event that the St Patrick’s Festival is cancelled, the tourism sector will be massively impacted, according to DublinTown. They calling on the Government to consider a range of support for Irish businesses to help them manage the probable economic effects. Their recommendations include VAR Sheet payment deferrals; temporarily reducing VAT rates to bring them in line with those common across Europe; and enforcing VAT compliancy on e-commerce purchases.
Dublin Town CEO, Richard Guiney, said: “The Government needs to take decisive action on the St Patrick’s Festival to give the business community certainty and time to prepare. While this is obviously an evolving situation – and advice from health professionals should be paramount – it is becoming increasingly likely the festival will be cancelled. A last-minute cancellation will be twice as challenging to Dublin hotels, restaurants and bars and therefore clarity is required.”