Westport hotelier Michael Lennon has joined the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF ) in calling for local authorities throughout the country urgently to exercise their powers to establish emergency waiver schemes in respect of local authority rates payable by the seriously wounded hotel and guesthouse sector.
The IHF stated that hotels and guesthouses were operating under an inequitably run system of ratings that was crippling businesses with excessive, out-of-kilter, levies that were based on out-of-date information.
“It is essential that steps be taken to support the local hospitality sector at this most difficult of times,” said Michael Lennon, general manager of Westport Woods Hotel and Spa. “Many hotels countrywide are struggling for their very survival including our sister Brian McEniff Hotels in Sligo, Donegal, and Dublin. Every hotel in Mayo is under pressure, as is every hotel around the country – their contribution to the community is enormous, and now is the time for Mayo County Council to ease the financial burden.”
The IHF also pointed out that the inability of most hotels and guesthouses to pay rates at current levels could have been ameliorated had the rating system in the Valuation Act 2001 been rolled out in a proper and timely manner.
The IHF is now urgently calling on each local authority immediately to enter into arrangements with individual hotel and guesthouse owners to facilitate the payment of reduced amounts in a manner that recognises both the inability of enterprises to meet current local authority rates, as well as the fact that this inability could have been avoided had the statutory revaluation process been carried out within the timeframe originally envisaged.
The IHF states that hotels and guesthouses are important economic drivers in every village, town, city, and county. As vital local enterprises, they employ almost 60,000 people across Ireland, and are an essential component of Ireland’s tourist industry, which contributed €1.5 billion in taxes in 2008 alone.
