Donohoe: 9% VAT rate not a prop for inflated prices in tourism sector

Tourism Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned the 9% VAT rate will not be used as a prop for the sector to return to high prices that drive tourists away from Ireland.

Minister Donohoe was speaking at the launch of a new 10-year strategy for tourism.

The plan aims to add 50,000 jobs, increase visitor numbers to 10 million and raise €5bn in revenue every year by 2025.

Minister Donohoe said we could not return to Ireland being too expensive and offering bad value to tourists.

"The maintenance of the lower VAT rate of 9% is absolutely conditional on competitive pricing and the maintenance and creation of jobs within the tourism sector," he said.

"It is not going to be used as a prop to return to the kind of pricing that caused such harm to our tourism offering in recent years."