Government mulls extending lower VAT rate for tourism
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Extending the 9% VAT rate for the tourism sector and a continued waiver of commercial rates are among the options being considered by Government to support businesses returning to work, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said.
Speaking as a major lifting of Covid-19 restrictions occurred today, Mr Varadkar insisted there will no “cliff edge” to the wage supports for businesses at the end of June.
He described today as a "day of freedom" for the country, adding that the Government will decide what will happen to business supports before the end of May.
“There will be no cliff edge, but also, this can't go on forever. This is borrowed money so will have to be phased out over time. We will make a distinction, obviously, between firms and sectors that are still closed, and are suffering the most, as opposed to those that will be able to bounce back quite quickly once they're up and running,” he said.
He said policies like the Wage Subsidy Scheme, probably the most important individual action for business, will likely stay in place for some time after the end of June.
Mr Varadkar said that while restrictions are lifting today, things will never be the same again, and remote working will remain a feature of Irish life.
“One thing that I'm very enthusiastic about is people having more flexibility about how they work, and this whole idea of blended working where you might work in HQ or in the office one or two days a week where you can also work from home or work from a remote hub.
“So, when we talk about things going back to normal. It doesn't mean everything going back to normal,” he told RTÉ radio.
On the use of rapid self-test Covid kits (antigen tests), Mr Varadkar said they should be used in addition and not instead of the PCR test.
Responding to the supermarket Lidl selling a large number of antigen tests over the weekend, Mr Varadkar expressed concern about the messaging around the ads.
“What they're also doing though is this ad, which I disagree with too... maybe it was a joke but it was a bundle of charcoal, sausages, and your antigen test,” he said.
“The message that sends out is that an antigen test is something you can take and (if) it's negative, now you've got the all-clear so go off to a barbecue, to party, to socialise. That's the wrong message,” he said.
“If an antigen test is positive, it means that you're infectious, you need to isolate, you need to get a confirmatory PCR test. If it's negative, it really means nothing,” he added.