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Tourism VAT cut likely in Budget

The hospitality sector is expecting the special VAT rate for tourism services to be cut from 13.5% to 9% in to-day's Budget. donohoe1019

The change, together with most details of the Budget has been heavily leaked over the past 24 hours.

Tge industry will also be looking at the level of suppoprts avauilable for ailing businesses and laid-off workers and possibly a large increase in funding for Tourism Ireland and Failte Ireland.

A major Live Entertainment Support Package to help music venues and theatres cater for reduced-capacity concerts and events is also expected. Grants of a minimum of €10,000 would help meet the costs of events where numbers are limited due to social distancing.

The commercial rates holiday for businesses is expected to be extended into next year.

Budget 2021 is also expected to set aside €500 million to fund cross-border projects over the next five years. The work will be overseen by the new Shared Island unit, set up in the Department of The Taoiseach.

The funding should guarantee delivery of the Government's contribution to the planned Monaghan-Derry motorway.

It is also likely to finance a new phase of the Erne Waterway, an element of expanded university facilities in Derry and mooted rail improvements linking Belfast, Dublin and Cork.

This new fund may also help to provide greenway tourism initiatives along disused railway lines in border counties similar to the successful facility in the Mayo constituency of former taoiseach Enda Kenny.

One of the final parts of the Budget agreed last night was a decision to pay a Christmas bonus for a majority of those receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.

CCD thrived pre-Covid

The Convention Centre Dublin enjoyed record revenues of €28.63m last year before being hit by the economic impact of Covid-19 in 2020, new accounts show. CCD10 20

The €28.6m in revenues represents an 11pc increase on the €25.8m recorded in 2018 and the highest annual revenues since the CCD opened in 2010.

However, due to Covid-19, all major events at the CCD since March of this year have been cancelled or postponed, though the business has remained active with the Oireachtas staging Dáil and Seanad sittings at the venue.

Last year, pre-tax profits at the company which operates the CCD, the Spencer Dock Convention Centre Dublin DAC declined by 86pc to €2.29m.

This was due mainly to a once-off €12m refinancing charge on the debt attached to the company.

Ireland to adopt EU 'Traffic Light' plan

Ireland is expected to sign up to the EU's traffic light system for travel, offering a glimmer of hope for the tourism and aviation industries. testing

Health minister Stephen Donnelly has confirmed that Ireland will adopt the system, with Cabinet approval due to come later today.

The system was agreed on Friday by the EU in a bid to knit together a patchwork and disparate array of travel regimes and advice across the bloc. The EU criteria, which member states have backed, assesses countries on matters such as their incidence rate per 100,000 people, as well as the positive test rate in a given population.

The system will replace Ireland's much-discussed green list, which was empty on Monday morning following the removal of four countries.

Under the new scheme, countries will be assigned a green, amber, or red coding by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC). Travellers who go to another EU country from a green list country are unlikely to have to quarantine, while travellers from orange-rate countries may have to take a Covid test before or after arriving.

Passengers from red-rated states would likely have to either take a test, or quarantine, or both. However, many of the protocols in the system are voluntary and "countries would be free to determine what measures to take".

One issue which could potentially slow Ireland's full adoption of the system, however, is airport testing.

Junior transport minister Hildegarde Naughton last week told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that such a system must be “quick, cheap, available, and meet the threshold for accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity”.

However, Mr Donnelly said testing must be "over and above what we already have", in terms of capacity. He said that Ireland had examined a rapid testing system called PCR, which he called "the gold standard", and other rapid testing.

Last week, Dublin Airport Authority, which runs Dublin and Cork Airports, told the Oireachtas it had the capability to carry out 15,000 pre-departure tests in Dublin Airport, but needs the Government's assistance.

Street upgrade for Cork

An ambitious regeneration of Cork’s historic MacCurtain St has been approved as part of a multi-million overhaul of city centre traffic movement north of the river Lee. mccurtainst

City councillors approved Part 8 planning for the MacCurtain St public transport improvement scheme - the latest phase of the city council’s City Centre Movement Strategy (CCMS) which has been designed to deliver major benefits for bus passengers, cyclists and pedestrians.

The National Transport Authority-funded scheme includes plans for a complete upgrade of the public realm on MacCurtain St, with new wider footpaths, bus priority measures, street resurfacing, new public lighting, additional street furniture, and the planting of new trees.

The scheme also includes major upgrades and traffic management changes to nearby streets, quays and bridges, with several new segregated bike lanes and bus lanes planned.

iNua raises €5m

iNua Hospitality has received €5 million in funding from its investors to support it during what it anticipates will be a disruptive winter. tullamorect

iNua's chief executive, Sean O'Driscoll, said that the group has also reached an agreement with its senior lender.

"We went out and raised capital among our investors over the summer months to support the business in the winter and raised more than €5 million.

All our hotels were profitable and successful in normal times, but there’s no doubt that this is a big blip for our sector, and we needed to make sure that we took the steps early to protect the business', he said