Éamon Ó Cuív warns seasonal tourism faces 'double whammy'

First of all, I would like to welcome the bringing of this Bill before the House, but I have some deep reservations about it. They are quite technical and I would hope the Minister could take them on board. Minister, there is a pattern in rural areas, particularly on the west coast, of tourism businesses being opened from March, Patrick's Day, some of them, some of them at Easter. Some stop then in the period around Halloween, some go towards Christmas, but a large number of them aren't open in January, February every year. And the reason that is crucial is that as a consequence they weren't entitled to the TWSS, the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. And I welcome the effort to address this in the introduction of the EWSS. Now a lot of these businesses, because if they're for example hotels and whatever, they didn't open at all in the first half of this year. So their turnover was down 100%. In the second half of this year, if the staycation incentive works, their second half income might be quite good. It might be over the 70% threshold from July to the end of the year. Now what that would mean is, as the bill is drafted, that despite the fact that the gross turnover might only be 40% of the 2019 turnover, they were not entitled to the TWSS because they weren't trading in January and February, and they won't be entitled to the EWSS because their income in the second half or turnover in the second half might be over 70%. Whereas if you had a business that was trading in January and February, and right throughout the year was trading at a capacity of 70%, or just under 70%, they would be entitled to both schemes. So, Minister, can I suggest a very simple change? And that is that the 1st of July date will be put back to the 1st of January. And if your turnover for the year is down 30%, you should be entitled under the scheme. Otherwise, there's a double whammy for the seasonal tourist businesses, and it's going to put a lot of them out of business. Now the second issue I wish to raise is that for some reason, when I got at the small print, and I'm always worried about the second iteration of a scheme, because sometimes when people get at it, they put more and more and more conditions. For some reason, proprietary directors are now excluded from the EWSS scheme. Now we know Ireland is full of very small self-employed businesses, some of which are formed into small companies. And where the proprietary directors are a large part, in some cases there might be 70% of the workforce, there might be 50% of the workforce, there might be 40% of the workforce. But these proprietary directors are ordinary workers in the business as well. You're talking about along the write-off last year's tax to take a credit or average it over the two years, but that's not really going to resolve these people's problems, because some of these companies will be making a profit, but having paid themselves a salary, the actual profits will be very, very small. And some of these are going to be very small turnover. I can think of one company, I know it, it's in the craft business, in the crystal business. And what they will do this year is, because there are going to be no foreign tourists around, and it's not as big a seller on the local market, for the staycation business for example, they will continue to hold on to their master craftspeople for the full year, and they will produce product that, please God, if their bookings hold up, and if we are getting international tourists next year, they'll be able to sell. Their other choice is to let their master workers go, that in some cases they might have had for 10, 20, 30, 40 years. And of course you know the consequences of that. When you lose that kind of expertise you've built up, it decimates a small business. So Minister, I'm hoping even at this late stage, that you might be able to look at that exclusion, and just take it out. Certainly for the very small companies, because I really think if you did, it would make a very significant difference. I'd like to mention the staycation or the stay and spend tax credit. I can understand from an administrative point of view, and I heard the debate about this, that there was an attraction in doing it this way, because you have a good fix on how many taxpayers are there. However, I do have to join with those who say that it's going to take out of the market a very important segment of people. And that is the people who don't have a taxable income, or don't pay income tax. Now as you are aware, there is a tax exemption if you're over 65, that you don't pay income tax if your income is under 36,000 a year for a couple, 18,000 for a single person. But a lot of these people have paid for their houses, have a little bit of money in the bank, and do have a little bit of money to spend. And if anyone doubts that, I suggest Minister, you talk to your good colleague, Michael Ring, who lives in Westport, a town that absolutely stays open throughout the winter every year, specialising in that market, built around the railway station in the town, where they get free travel down to Westport, and where they stay in very good hotels at very good rates, and where they have created a huge life in that town. But under this scheme, because this was hugely focused towards pensioners, under this scheme, they're not going to be attracted, because there's nothing in it for them. Now I think there was one scheme, and I was trying to think of which scheme it was, it was the only scheme ever, that there was a reversible tax credit. In other words, if you had no tax to pay, you could actually get it back from the revenue. It was a simple enough mechanism. Revenue have the bank details of nearly everybody, and they're very, very good at making tax refunds. If you send in the tax return to revenue, and you've slightly overpaid your tax, because you've held expenditure or whatever, they'll always pay you back, and it's very efficient, and it's not huge bureaucracy. I think it would be a huge boost to this scheme, if you included that process. In other words, that this rebate would be available, and even if you had no income tax liability, you'd get the tax credit paid into your account. As I said, there's a huge market out there, for the very people you're trying to get to spend money, the savers, the people with the money in the bank, the people with no debts. And remember, over 65 year olds are a big proportion of the people with that ready cash. A lot of them need to get, but I know if it's towns like Westport and other towns in the west of Ireland, they'll make them COVID safe. They'll organise them in a safe way, and the same has to be said for the year in Roderian, and therefore, Minister, I think that change could also be introduced. These are practical measures that could be taken, that would make the little gremlins that get into schemes. So, just to summarise, the 1st of July date back, otherwise the scheme is totally lopsided against seasonal business, that will, please God, do relatively better in the 2nd half. But I had no business whatsoever in the 1st half of this year, had nil business up to the end of June. The 2nd one is the proprietary directors, and the 3rd one is, make it even better for stickations. Allow all people registered with revenue in on the gig.