Hospitality and tourism businesses to protest 'unsustainable' costs outside Leinster House 

Protest follows what business groups have deemed a 'deeply disappointing' Budget 2025

Business groups campaigned heavily for a reduction in the rate of VAT for the hospitality and tourism sectors in Budget 2025, calling for the restoration of the 9% rate introduced during the pandemic to support struggling businesses. 

Businesses across the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors will gather outside Leinster House on Tuesday to protest the "unsustainable" cost of doing business following an unsuccessful campaign to lower the industries' rate of Vat.

Organisers from the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI), the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI) and other small business groups will highlight what they are calling "mounting cost pressures" on SMEs resulting from Government policies which have arrived "virtually all at once."