Ryanair call on Govt to scrap 'stupid' travel tax

Ryanair have called on the Government to scrap its "stupid and unfair" €10 travel tax, as Fáilte Ireland released traffic figures which show that the passenger numbers to and from Ireland in the month of February fell by over 220,000 (-10.5%).

If this rate of decline is maintained, according to Ryanai Ireland will lose more than 2.6m passenger movements in 2009 as visitors are turned off travelling to Ireland by the Government’s €10 tax and the Government-owned DAA’s €15 departure fee.

To date just three EU countries have introduced a tourist tax. Of the three EU countries that introduced a tourist tax, Belgium and Holland have scrapped their taxes in the light of declining passenger numbers and the UK continues to suffer double digit traffic declines.

Calling for the scrapping of the €10 tourist tax, Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: "Traffic to and from Ireland is already in steep decline and the Government’s €10 tourist tax will make this collapse even worse.

This unfair tourist tax must be scrapped, and the Government-owned DAA’s charges significantly reduced, if we are to make Ireland a competitive tourism destination once more and reverse this extraordinary decline in visitor numbers.

"As the Belgians and the Dutch have already discovered, the Irish Government cannot stimulate tourism by taxing tourists. If Ireland loses 2.6 million visitors this year, that will cause the loss of over 2,500 jobs at Ireland’s international airports.

"It is time this gutless Government scrapped this stupid tax and welcomes visitors to this country, instead of trying to tax them”.