Irish Examiner view: Firms need help in these hard times

Nash 19 restaurant and food shop on Prince's Street, Cork has ceased trading with immediate effect with the loss of 20 jobs. Picture: Larry Cummins

Warehoused tax debt

It has become clear over the last few days that the growing number of closures in the hospitality sector, as well as across many other industries, is not alone about rising costs, but the impending need for many of those businesses to cough up an estimated €1.75bn of warehoused tax debt.

The Government allowed many businesses to defer payment of tax liabilities during the pandemic and some 60,000 did just that. Now they need to have paid the monies they owe to the exchequer by May 1, or at least have a payment schedule in place by then. It appears, however, that just 10% of the firms involved owe some 85% of that money, leading business consultants PwC to predict — as reported in the Irish Examiner and on IrishExaminer.com on Monday — that many hundreds of businesses will go under as a result.

Everyone is aware of the necessity of paying taxes, and no one accepts it is good that individuals or businesses should shirk their tax responsibilities, but the Government and the Revenue Commissioners must find some mechanism to keep businesses open and jobs safe.

It might be that warehousing tax debt was something that was always going to come back to bite those who availed of the facility and they should have planned in advance to cope. But it might also be argued that the Government will be sitting on an estimated €65.2bn tax surplus by 2027 and some of this could be used to assist ailing businesses.

With the hospitality, retail, and construction sectors all facing problematic financial times, it is time for the Government to address the issue in a timely and constructive manner acceptable to both those affected and to taxpayers as a whole.

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Growing anger at DUP’s actions

It is definitely possible to sense the growing frustration in Westminster over the DUP’s intransigence in getting the Stormont Assembly up and running, having been suspended since February 2022.

Despite the ongoing efforts of the Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, to retore the power-sharing administration — including the dangling of a £3.3bn (€3.8bn) carrot — the DUP is still refusing to participate because of hardline unionist isolationism on post-Brexit trading arrangements in the six counties.

Talks yesterday at Stormont were designed to try and finagle the DUP back into government, but all the signs indicate that they will not budge and that their “dog-in-the-manger” attitude towards restoring government remains resolute — despite the party leadership citing “progress”.

Looming strike action by public sector workers has heaped further pressure on the DUP. Some £600m (€697.5m) of the Heaton-Harris package is set aside to settle ongoing public sector pay claims, but this money cannot be released until the Stormont institutions are back up and running.

Although most of the other parties in the North backed the initiative, the DUP has remained steadfast — even in the face of threats that any alternative to their agreeing to restore the Stormont Executive would, according to the Conservative chairman of the Northern Ireland Committee, Robert Buckland, mean “the involvement of the Irish Government". 

Such talk has been dismissed by the DUP as “idle threats”, but there are those — including Alliance party leader Naomi Long — who believe that unless the institutions are quickly restored, the Assembly itself will become irrelevant.

There have also been observers on this side of the border who have long believed that the British government will eventually pull the carpet out from under the unionists’ feet.

Quite when — if at all — such a time will come is a matter of conjecture. One thing is for sure, though, both the unions and the public at large in Northern Ireland are increasingly restive. That being so, something has to give — and soon.

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Ferragni scandal hits social media

The tale of Italian social media influencer Chiara Ferragni is cautionary.

Ferragni, who amassed a fortune through incessant selfie-taking and who has 29.4m followers on Instagram, has become embroiled in a fraud investigation after a pandoro — an Italian Christmas cake — that she endorsed was supposed to raise cash for a children’s hospital in Turin.

The scandal dates back a year, when the 36-year-old signed up to promote the yuletide confectionery made by Piedmont company Balocco. She subsequently made over €1m from the campaign, and while the company donated €50,000 to the hospital before the initiative began, it has donated nothing since.

Last month, the Italian authorities hit Ferragni and Alessandra Balocco, the owner of the company, with respective fines of €1m and €420,000 for misleading the public.

Social-media influencers are a millennial/Gen Z phenomenon, who wield power over millions of people and are paid to promote products. That is a concern.

As a result of the Ferragni scandal, because of which she lost 200,000 followers, the Italian communications authority — echoing something its French equivalent did last year — approved stringent new rules to improve transparency in social media posts by influencers.

Whatever the outcome of all of this for Ferragni, the free run that influencers have had thus far, on society and social media, is coming to an end. The case will almost certainly accelerate regulation across Europe, if not the rest of the world.

That’s a good thing, because unfettered access to people’s lives can be manipulated for all sorts of unpalatable ends, as we have seen in this country with the rise of unhindered, right-wing hate speech.

It might seem a long way from race-baiting to selling Christmas cake, but the journey from one to the other is a lot shorter than many people think.