€5 nightly tax for tourists to Dublin floated by council
Dublin City Council (DCC) has floated a number of models for a proposed ‘tourist tax’ in the capital, with the authority hoping to reflect the increased burden placed on city services by visitors.
Cities in 21 other European countries have implemented such a measure, which would place an additional charge on those staying in hotels, hostels and other accommodation in the city.
In a presentation to councillors, DCC’s economic development head Ross Curley outlined the different models in use from which Dublin could draw inspiration.
“What we’ve seen is there’s three core ways on how this can be charged,” he said.
"So, it’s per person per night, per room per night and a percentage of the room rate. All these come with different permutations and outcomes from a perspective of revenue collection and complexity of how they might be collected.”
Mr Curley said that if, for example, a flat fee of €2 per room per night was applied across the city, it would net the council about €17.5m a year in additional revenue.
Another of his proposals would be charging based on accommodation level, with five-star hotels attracting the highest €5 charge, while others would be subject to an additional €2 or €3 nightly fee.
As a long sought after measure from many in the council, the implementation of a tourist tax would depend on new legislation from Government, and it has faced strong pushback from Dublin’s hoteliers and hospitality industry.
They point to the high prices already faced by tourists to the capital, and the fact that hotels already pay commercial rates to the council, along with Vat.
But many councillors at the meeting gave their backing to the proposal regardless.
Independent councillor Nial Ring said he “100pc” agreed with the concept of a tourism levy, but worried that the council would n’o be able to keep the additional funding raised.
"My main concern on us doing a levy would be that the Government would snare it. Basically they would take it by reducing some other grants that they give us,” he said.
“Can we hold onto it? Can we ringfence it? … My genuine worry would be we’d never get a chance to decide what to do with it because the Government would just take it by reducing some other grants.”
Green Party councillor Michael Pidgeon said he also supported the measure, but would prefer a percentage charge on a hotel room over the flat fee proposal.
"Even if you can’t get agreement to change it or you forget about it for a while, at least it’s a percentage. So, it’s moving up with the price of the hotel,” he said.
Labour councillor Dermot Lacey said he had been calling for such a measure “since 2002” and he wholeheartedly supported it.
"I think Nial Ring’s point though is really important. If we introduce such a measure, we have to stop the state continuing to steal from us monies because we have raised it ourselves,” he said.
Mr Lacey added that the arguments put forward by the hospitality industry didn’t hold any sway with him, especially after the Government’s reduction in Vat from 13.5pc to 9pc for the sector last year.
"These are the people who put up prices in hotels to €700 and €800 a night when there’s a concert or a match on in the Aviva. So, I have no sympathy whatsoever for the leading hoteliers in the country.”