Mixed reaction to retaining Vat at 9%

Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s decision to retain the 9% Vat rate in the tourism sector will not create jobs, only safeguard existing employment, an economist has predicted.

In his budget speech, the minister said the lower rate had created 15,000 jobs since its introduction.

Dr Declan Jordan, an economist in the University College Cork School of Economics, said: “The 9% Vat rate, I can’t see how that will create a jobs increase, it could have destroyed jobs [if the rate had been put back up to 13.5%], but all[the] retaining it will do is protect existing jobs.”