Taxes for tourists visiting Dublin and other cities would be a bad idea, Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan said on Wednesday.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show, he said: “The last thing we need to do is to be adding costs, to be quite honest about it.
“And anyway this would be a matter for the Minister for Finance, because you can’t raise a tax in this country without Government approval and the drafting of legislation by the Department of Finance.
“I don’t know how it would work that it would just attach to one county, but for argument’s sake, if it did attach to just one county like Dublin, what’s to stop somebody from staying in Wicklow getting the Dart in and not paying the tax?” the Minister said.
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Mr O’Donovan added he would not like to see a city tax in his home city of Limerick.
The Minister pointed out the four Dublin local authorities who are proposing the city tax could not act unilaterally. “They can come together and propose it, but ultimately the levying of taxes is an issue that is based with Government.
“Just because something is done in another European country doesn’t mean it has to be done here. We have a different tax base and we have graduated tax base, and people pay a lot of tax here. They also pay the local property tax,” Mr O’Donovan said.
“And, as somebody who goes to Dublin every week, three or four times a week every day, I wouldn’t take Hazel Chu’s comments [about Dublin on the same show] lying down.
“I don’t see the dirty, filthy city that she’s talking about ... that’s not the city that I stay in. I see a very welcoming and a very well-presented city and ... and I’m there morning and night,” he said.
“It’s easy knowing that a lot of people who come up with these ideas – maybe they don’t sit down with hoteliers, they don’t sit down restaurateurs or don’t sit down with publicans.
“The last thing we need to be quite honest about it is another tax that’s going to feel more unwelcome. And as I say they’ll stay in Wicklow, they’ll stay in Kildare and maybe go to Limerick with Galway. Wouldn’t that be totally counterproductive for the Dublin tourism industry?”
In the interview, the Minister also outlined details of a new national strategy to counter disinformation, which was a “serious challenge” to all democracies around the world.
The issue required “a whole-of-Government approach, a whole of society and a whole of community response”, he said.
“What we want to do is really give citizens, the population and media organisations as well the tools with which they can try and help to weed out what is actually fact checked and a fact and is news, and what’s rumour and damaging,” Mr O’Donovan said.
“We’ve now published a strategy ... but we’re going to rely on partners, including our public service broadcasters and our commercial broadcasters and the social media platforms themselves as well, to work with us on weeding out something that has become a global scourge.”
When asked about a levy to help fund independent productions, Mr O’Donovan said people already paid a lot for entertainment through their television licence or through monthly direct debits for streaming services.
Some other European countries had decided on a levy, but he had discussed it with officials in his department and it had been decided that the timing of such a levy “could not be worse”.
“The reality is that this levy would absolutely be passed on to the consumer. There is no doubt in my mind, show me a levy on health insurance or this insurance or that insurance that isn’t passed on to the consumer.”
When it was pointed out that other European countries have such a levy, the Minister responded that they did not have a broadcasting charge like Ireland does.
“So, Irish consumers are paying a lot and there is no doubt in my mind, absolutely zero, that if we levy this, first of all it will be seen in the United States as an unfair tariff on companies, that’s the first thing, but it [the charge] will absolutely be passed on.”
