2 weeks Ago By Cormac McQuinn
Sinn Féin , Fianna Fáil , the Social Democrats and the Labour Party are all on the election trail in the capital. Mary Lou McDonald , the Sinn Féin leader is expected to attend a “Save Moore Street” rally before going to a Remembrance Sunday service in St Patrick’s Cathedral and canvassing elsewhere in Dublin. Fianna Fáil is launching a policy document on “supporting urban committees” with proposals for improving the lives of people living, working and visiting Ireland’s cities.
The Social Democrats will be outlining their plan to “restore and revive” Dublin with Dublin Central candidate Gary Gannon and former TD Róisín Shortall leading the charge on that. And Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik will hold an event in the capital to unveil her party’s candidates. Meanwhile, Taoiseach Simon Harris will be on a dash around Cork, Limerick, Galway and Athlone as he seeks to drum up support for his party, Fine Gael.
And Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin will be campaigning in Tipperary. Much of the debate on Saturday centred around support for businesses. Fine Gael has pledged to cut the VAT rate for the hospitality sector to 11 per cent just weeks after no change to the rate was implemented in the budget .
The rate had previously been cut to 9 per cent to support such businesses during the pandemic before being restored to 13.5 per cent. Tánaiste Micheál Martin said his party did not “rule anything out” in terms of supporting a VAT change.
However, he said what was needed was a broad review of tax rates for all businesses as the Fine Gael proposal could lead to an increase in energy costs. Sinn Féin ’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty described the Fine Gael proposals as “half-baked” and “laughable”, given that it had “only last week rejected Sinn Féin’s proposal to reduce VAT for the hospitality sector – excluding hotels – to 9 per cent”. Cormac McQuinn is a Political Correspondent at The Irish Times.
