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LAST UPDATE | 10 Nov 2024
MICHEÁL MARTIN HAS raised concerns about Fine Gael’s plan to reduce the VAT rate for the food and hospitality sector to 11% stating that “the problem with going to 11% is gas and electricity prices would have to be brought to 11% as well”.
Fianna Fáil manifesto pledges to keep the 9% VAT on gas and electricity bills for the next 5 years in a bid to keep costs low for customers.
The government originally cut VAT on domestic gas and electricity from 13.5% to 9% in 2022, but it has been extended for the last two years.
If it were returned to the higher rate of 13.5% it would add around another €65 a year to the average electricity bill.
His comments come as one of the first election campaign disagreement among party policies has emerged over the VAT issue.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin told The Journal this week that the cost-of-living is coming up on the doors as he canvasses around the country.
Tackling the cost-of-living and high energy costs is understood to be a core pillar in the party’s election strategy.
However, Taoiseach Simon Harris moved to allay any fears today, promising today that “there is more to come” on his party’s cost-of-living measures.
Harris said: “We can’t say to business people ‘we can’t help you, because we also have to help householders’.
“Governments have to be able to do more than one thing at a time, and let me assure you, and most importantly, assure people getting electricity and energy bills: you haven’t heard from Fine Gael yet on our policy proposals in relation to that.”
He added: “There is more to come though in our cost-of-living measures, because we’re absolutely, absolutely committed to helping people with the electricity and energy bills.”
Responding to Martin’s criticism, he said gym memberships would not increase as Fine Gael was introducing a separate tax credit.
Harris said: “We have also said we’re introducing a tax credit for gym membership worth €50.
“So let’s say your gym membership is €500 euro, you go up to €509 if the VAT changes, but it’ll come down by the €50 tax credit, so gym membership costs will fall under the Fine Gael plan.
I know Micheál is into the fitness, although I think he’s more a walker than a gym man.
The manifesto, which is due to be published next week, will also outline that the party intends to reduce the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy on households’ electricity bills by up to €100.
The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) announced earlier this year that network charges would kick in for customers from last month, adding an average of €100 to customers’ bills,
The charge, which equates to around €8.40 a month, is required to fund investment in the electricity grid.
However, the party is proposing a switch to direct funding by the Exchequer of the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme, which would in turn, reduce the PSO levy on households.
Speaking in Cork yesterday, Martin said his party is committed to keeping the the 9% VAT rate for electricity gas prices.
The Fine Gael proposal of 11% would, in turn, increase energy costs for businesses and households, said Martin.
“That’s something I think that we have to reflect on. We don’t want to be increasing gas and electricity prices for homes and for businesses. Incidentally, it also increases membership fees for gyms across the country. They’d have to come from 9% to 11%,” he said.
Minister for Finance Jack Chambers said Fine Gael’s plan would directly lead to a 2% increase in the energy bills of every business and every household in the country.
“On the one hand, they are proposing to reduce the VAT rate for hospitality, while on the other hand they are increasing the VAT rate for all business, including hospitality.This move is regressive,” he said.
“Fianna Fáil will deliver a permanent 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity for 5 years, lowering costs for every business and household.
“Our proposals fully fund retaining a lower rate of tax on energy bills for everyone, and also provide separate direct aid for businesses and the hospitality sector in particular.
“Fine Gael’s proposal for an 11% rate will lead to an increased tax on gym memberships, which is very unfair to tens of thousands of people who value being a member of their local gym.”
Fianna Fáil, if in government next time around, also plan to benchmark energy network costs against other OECD countries.
The move comes after Eurostat revealed in recent weeks that households in Ireland are paying for the second most expensive electricity in the European Union.
A household using both electricity and gas is paying around €500 more a year for their energy compared with the average in other European countries.
There is also a pledge contained in the manifesto to publish an independent investigation into the speed and extent of passthrough from wholesale prices to retail prices, so as to provide transparency to consumers.
A number of ministers have raised concerns in recent months about the slow pace in which energy operators are passing on cost reductions to consumers.
Party sources state the overall aim is to ensure that consumers see a reduction in their bills when companies wholesale prices fall.
In this year’s budget, it was announced that two €125 energy credits would be paid to all households.
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Tolls should be lifted full stop. We already pay car tax.
@JC: these toll roads are privately funded. If they weren’t then they wouldn’t exist and you would still be going through the local towns or the gov would have had to pay the cost of them and probably have to raise taxes to do so. Like a mortgage, these loans have to be paid back and in the meantime all the risks e.g. low traffic during covid etc are borne solely by the toll company. It’s actually a relatively low risk and good deal for the state
@Toca Stories: All well and good but I gather the costs of building and maintaining most of the toll roads have been covered many times over.
The toll should have a limited period, just long enough to recoup costs and make a profit before switching to some other arrangement for ongoing maintenance.
@Toca Stories: They are *part* privately funded under the PPP (Public, Private Partnership) model fondly used by Fianna Fail.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: you are aware that roads need maintenance, which has a cost? In fact, the cumulative cost of road maintenance tends to exceed the cost of original construction after a couple of decades.
@Name: Read the last sentence of my post.
@Toca Stories: apart from the roads that the government has to pay extra to the company if usage is down, so to say the toll companies take all the risk isn’t true in some cases. No problem with tolls in general especially when they actually get rid of them after the 30 years (or whatever duration) as per the original agreement, although true to form in this country,.none seem to ever be abolished, how long is the east link toll there now?
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: IMO “that other arrangement” should still be tolls under the “user pays” model
@JC: I don’t use that road, why should my taxes be used to fund the maintenance of it.
@Toca Stories: the risks are not borne by the toll company. Like everything else the risk is borne by the the taxpayer. The state had to pay out 9 million euro to toll operators because of roads being used less during Covid
@Toca Stories: I couldn’t disagree more, the majority of these roads were built during the Celtic Tiger when the country was awash with money, and let’s be honest they should have been built decades ago, when motorists were paying a fortune in road tax, to drive on dirttracks. The UK built most of their motorways during the 60s and 70s with the majority of them free to drive on. I have no issue with paying tolls for major road infrastructures such as tunnels or bridges, but not motorways.
@Toca Stories: that is absolutely rubbish,toll company has a contract with the govt ,and on some roads the govt is paying the toll companies because they have not reached their targets
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: that’s exactly what is happening with all of the tolls except the m50 and ringsend- it was a state decision to keep the tolls on those roads. The m50 actually funds a lot of the rest of the network resurfacing and maintenance. If it didn’t then tax revenue would need to make up the difference. Like it or not there is no one making huge obscene amounts of money from tolls. In fact some have actually made a huge loss as the expected traffic never materialised.
@Toca Stories: Off course they would have been built. Financing badly needed road infrastructure is a sure thing in a country like Ireland where tolled infrastructure like the Liffey bridge will pay for itself many times over. The government could have easily built those roads on the strength of toll income alone. PPP’s another FFG racket to enrich a few at the expense of the many.
@Pip morgan: Could say that about anything. Childless people paying tax to fund education, healthy people who never use hospitals paying to fund healthcare etc. In a functioning society tax is used to pay for services for the greater good. Unfortunately in Ireland we pay tax and see it squandered, the childrens hospital being a prime example. We seem to be incapable of using our tax money efficiently. Pity we can’t bring in a scandi government for a few years. High tax but excellent services.
@Pip morgan: There are probably a lot of roads that you don’t use but still you pay for the upkeep. Otherwise why should others pay for the roads that you use and they are not.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: yeah that’s what Haughey said about the east link (before he realised that one of his rich friends would buy it from the state at a small cost!!
@JC: a key tenet of having toll roads is that there must be a toll-free alternative route. There are. Nobody stopping you from using them.
@JC: absolutely 100% They should . We pay for car tax and our cars get wrecked with. Pot holes. Where is all this toll money going
@Toca Stories: All those toll roads were built under a prublic private contract. So no – private companies did not totally pay to have the M50 or any other road built. The toll was only ever meant to be temporary till the government recouped the money they spent. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/m50-tolling-to-continue-until-2035-1.799406
@Name: What do you think you pay road tax for? Not that hard to figure out – to maintain roads. And lets not forget that most of our motorways were built with money from the EU.
@Pip morgan: I don’t use hospitals. Why should my taxes be used to pay for them?
Tolls should only apply until cost of making the road is recovered. It should not be an indefinite taxation on motorists, where most of the money collected, is leaving the country.
@Patrick MC Dermott: well , in theory it is – when PPP contracts are up ,they revert to state ownership , which should be soonish for some of the roads
The exception is the m50 toll, which is state owned and costs almost the most of the cost of the toll to collect ..
@East Cork Cheeses: the Eastlink bridge is now state owned and a toll still applies.
@Patrick MC Dermott: these costs have to be recovered in perpetuity as there are ongoing maintenance costs, which tend to exceed the original costs of construction. Hence we’ll always have to shell out. Best this is done by the users of the road than the general tax payer.
@East Cork Cheeses: no it doesn’t
@Name: if that’s the case there should be a toll on every road in the country.
@Name: And again – road tax. I suggest you contact the relevant authority and ask what they’re spending your road tax on if not for maintaining roads. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any maintenance crews fixing the M50
@Name: In fairness, the m50 is probably the cheapest road in Ireland to maintain per km travelled per car
Sure why not lift them for horse racing, rugby matches, soccer and communions? Ridiculous suggestion.
@Ben dover: In order to avoid the chaos seen before the Limerick / Cork match with huge numbers from 2 counties converging on the toll from different motorways.
@Ben dover: I
@Stanley Marsh: On that, I’m considering what the motorway usage would be if it was free for that period? Wouldn’t far more drivers opt for it as a potentially quicker & more direct route? Surely more people use the Port Tunnel on bank holidays because it’s cheaper then.
@Ben dover: Not necessarily. If you’re stuck in a 5km tail back you’re not getting the value you’re paying for – i.e. free flowing traffic. You might as well be stuck outside Kildare or Monasterevin like the old days – so why should you have to pay?
Ireland shouldn’t have tolls at all, we paid enough motor tax & various other motoring related taxes.
@Okiec 666: not enough to cover the costs of car infrastructure
@Name: many times more than enough actually.
So the guys who use those roads day in day out should pay the tolls – but the one offers should get a special deal – because they’re special,
@East Cork Cheeses: Haulage vehicles should be exempt. They are already diverting through Abbeyleix-Urlingford to avoid the toll which is an excessive amount, thus creating traffic problems along the N77-R639. The purpose of the M8 was to take trucks off the old N8, but due to excessive tolls this isn’t working out.
@East Cork Cheeses: Another way of looking at it though – If the tolls were dropped during this time, then the guy who uses these roads day in day out wouldn’t be stuck in a 5km queue to the toll
I was at Arcade fire the other night, tolls were charged on journey there, so no.
@Eddie Garvey: An Arcade Fire gig doesn’t have the cultural importance of an All Ireland Final, nor does it have the potential for tens of thousands of fans from the same region using a single piece of infrastructure to travel to the venue.
@Ajax Penumbra: well tens of thousands use the same road every day to travel to work to earn money and pay taxes so the country can have vital services and so they can look after their families so if they have to pay then those who want to watch a game of hurling should pay. At least the latter have a choice, the former do not.
@Eddie Garvey: Hardly the same thing – do you think Malahide Castle was built to host live gigs? Croker’s a national stadium!
@Ajax Penumbra:
Cultural importance… LOL
No. I have to use it every day to go to work and see the parents. Why should others get off if they are only up for a match.
@Annette: I honestly wouldn’t begrudge them a few toll-free hours in Dublin as a once-off. I mean, they could say that they don’t get the benefit of the motorway when they’re not using it. It would be a great gesture.
Besides, it spares all the other roads for that peak. I was once stuck on the coast road for an hour while matchgoers drove back after an All-Ireland match – that’s before they had other routes. Town used to be massively congested before we had the Port Tunnel too.
Would this move really alleviate congestion considering nobody speeds through even an open toll barrier at 120kph?
Here is an idea: take the bus or train and stop clogging our roads and footpaths with your Landcruisers.
@Name: bus or train already sold out. Train would have been absolute disaster if it was Clare v Limerick final , capacity just doesn’t exist for large-scale movements of people from the same area.
@John Manahan: won’t the train coming from Cork be full as it reaches Limerick junction and the Clare people will be hoping to get on it at that point
@James Leahy: the train from Cork will be full long before reaching Limerick Junction , just checked online a while ago – there are only 3 trains leaving Limerick before 12.15, which is absolutely ridiculous.
@John Manahan: the Clare fans would want to be making alternative arrangements. Ryanair were £19 return from Kerry airport up to last week
@John Manahan: Better get online now – the Big Green Bus has about 40 seats left for the 21st on various coaches! Might have to be at the stop early, but you get to sleep all the way up while someone else does the driving ;-)
@John Manahan: And where are they meant to get the extra trains from?? Magic?
@John Manahan: They put on extra trains for the All Ireland semi’s and finals depending on where the fans are coming from. The first trains on All Ireland Sundays arrive in Dublin at 7.30 am. They all managed long before the M50 was built to make it to Dublin. And I know this because I was a restaurant manager and worked as a waitress before that. We’d have queues for breakfast outside the door by 8.30 am every year unless of course it was Dublin and Wicklow/Meath/Drogheda, when we’d still be busy but nothing like when two further away counties were playing.
For safety tolls should be abolished, why push people on to more dangerous secondary roads?…that would be a courageous political move to help save lives
@Spartacus Ireland: How many lives are we talking?
@Spartacus Ireland:
Money always comes before saving lives on the roads here, the positioning of speed cameras clearly shows that.
No way. Not for Gaa .
There’s always one anti-GAA begrudger.
@Shaner Mac: But there’s always plenty of GAA fans who believe that they are God’s Chosen Ones, who should have everything they want for free.
Anyway, this is all about one useless politician looking to get a few more votes after his last failure to get into the Dail.
@Shaner Mac: There’s a bit of a point though, it’d be like a subsidy to allow further ticket rises. They should make it free for 16 seater buses, etc and increase the price for cars on the day in order to encourage private organisation of buses. (And make a big advertisement campaign in the lead up on radio & tv.)
I don’t follow hurling. But I occasionally go to the odd music festival outside of the pale. So can I go to these toll free?
No worries, let the train take the strain!
Five kilometers is nothing. Remember when us Dubs took an hour to pass the manual toll on the M50 toll bridge? If people do not want to queue they can always get a tag. I know it seems like a “good” solution to a specific problem but remember this is an entertainment and social event and maybe the toll companies need a rule that says if there are more than say five cars in each queue then the barriers open to clear the queue. This would be fair on everyone and every event.
@Niall O’Cofaigh: there is exactly that stipulation in the contracts. Never seen it done despite undermanned toll booths.
If people haven’t noticed ffg agenda is to give as much if our infrastructure to the few at the expense of the many
There should be a law that if a tailback back exceeds 500m, the barriers must open to relieve the traffic.
The people whinging about tolls would be the first in line crying when the roads with tolls fall into a poor condition after abolishing tolls. Whinge. Moan. Baaaaaaa. Bleat.
There should be no toll on the M4 it not even a motor way a badly built road , that should of been a straight motorway to Sligo no widen to almost motorway standard left with 100 speed limit only to make more revenue.
@Be Lucky: the M4 is a high grade motorway untill becomes the N4 near Mullingar. There are no tolls on the N4.
All the tolls in Ireland should be barrier free. You should not have to stop. They do it on the M50. Why can’t they do it on the rest?
Oh, you mean everyone should buy a toll tag? Hardly a saving if they only use it once in a blue moon, to be fair?
@Brendan Nolan: all of them have a free flow lane for tag holders
@F Fitzgerald: You don’t have to have a toll tag to use the M50, there are other ways to pay…
The sense of entitlement in the Grab All Association is nothing if not persistent.
Yes! travel ban should be lifted ,for women abused ,working at oil countries
They not belong to EU and EU not belong to camel owners
@james rowan: ⁷
Yes because everyone in Ireland loves hurling. Every single one.
@Leinsterprincess: We do. It’s only that we couldn’t all get tickets for the All-Ireland!
Tolls should only be lifted if there’s a risk that traffic congestion could affect my plans – so no, not this time.
Good luck with that. These companies are rubbing their hands on days like this
Should be done on certain days to help people out but that would make too much sense
Why should they be lifted just for bloody gaa fans ffs
@reg morrisey:
Yeah, charge the boggers more. If you haven’t got a D reg you pay double !
Maybe 3 hours each way 10.30 to 1.30 beforehand and 6 to 9pm afterwards.
Only for the winners….
Ouch, that’s worse. Sure then no one would leave!
I would be almost certain that the people who have a problem with tolls pay very little income tax.
What should really happen here is that etags should be mandatory and linked to a bank account.
Also, all motorways should tolled on a distance covered basis.
@Donal McCarthy: Strange take. If you’re on a motorway you’re a fully qualified driver, either driving for a living or not, you’d still be on enough to run a car. And hardly retired. It doesn’t follow that you’d be on minimum wage. How would the distance factor in? Should cars be tagged on and off at exits to track how far they drove?
Should tolls be lifted if somebody’s going to hospital?
To make sure they ‘don’t miss the match’! LEAVE EARLIER!
Why doesn’t everyone just leave on time or even earlier then no one will be late!
Discount bus/train tickets maybe. Gaa really needs to up its game on linking up with public transport and offering park and ride.
They should be Lifted Altogether.
Make the toll free if England win the euros.
There the bloggers will have to support the Kings team!
Horse-drawn tubtraps should be tollfree – but fines for failing to remove equine droppings from roads.
I know iam off script but I need to ask this question, Nathan Carter playing in an irish prison without the prisoners, to me is obsession, what do the rest of think
@Robert Halvey: If there isn’t going to be an inmate audience at this charity fundraiser, I suspect that it’s to do with Article 16 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
have your say