Hospitality, tourism and retail firms hold Dublin protest

http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/1015/1475440-hospitality-sector-to-lead-dublin-protest-against-costs/

Posted by badger-biscuits

18 Comments

  1. It’s actually shocking people protest for this, yet don’t protest over the myriad of more serious issues we have in this country

  2. No VAT no Vote is fucking hilarious, who are they going to vote for, the other neo-liberal parties that are out there?

  3. Maybe if they didn’t gouge the country during the COVID lockdowns people might have a bit of empathy for them.

  4. Lads you had your chance to show the 9% works and instead you increased prices and took the profits. There is no sympathy out there for you.

  5. The neck of that crowd. In my experience as a employee and tech consultant, the most arrogant toxic workplaces – and owners – have been hospitality businesses. They literally expect you to work for free and be thankful.

    When the days are good and the till is flowing with cash, is there a kick back to staff? A little bonus? Absolutely not. Greed takes over.

    Same does for during COVID, no reducing prices when the VAT was at 9%.

    Now they want taxpayers to forgo circa €600 to €800 million to give them a tax break. No. Pay yer taxes and pipe down.

  6. ssssssdddddddd11111 on

    It’s hard to have sympathy for them when most of them are charging between 20-25 euro for a fish and chips or burger and chips in these gastro pubs or fancy burger joints.

  7. Busy-Rule-6049 on

    Ah come on have a bit of sympathy, they want to pay a decent wage and they want to pay some sick pay but just not now. They will do in the future tho, promise

  8. Fair play to them. Far too often this sub criticises people for not taking action. People are rightly upset that government is fucking over small business and the reaction is begrudgery. Stay classy /r/ireland

  9. BenderRodriguez14 on

    Entitlement personified. Outside of 2009-11ish, hospitality in Dublin (or other hotspots in Ireland) has typically been the definition of easy mode. (it might be different in tiny little villages or smaller towns that don’t get much footfall etc to be fair)

    Charge Swiss prices, pay dogshit wages, dole out zero hour contracts, have a government happy to continue to flood in endless migrant workers to make it easier to cheat staff. Plus very poor regulation/enforcement making it easy to hire people without visas and pay far below anything resembling minimum wage or with any protections or rights at all.

    A local customer base who are a lot easier to please than many other countries culinarily (and who absolutely will not complain if dissatisfied), and who don’t have a good history of ‘voting with their wallet’ if you overcharge.

    One of the higher per capita tourism rates on the planet (though that has been slipping as they have been gouging out the less wealthy ones). And those wealthy ones are more than happy to spend absurd money on bog basic stuff or spend €10+ a pint if it means they can say they got drunk in Ireland. Not to mention a huge number of American tourists, where they legitimately take getting ripped off as a mark of pride/status at times, while leaving big tips as standard on top of it all.

    Tens and we up to hundreds of millions to be made by just letting asylum seekers stay instead at a prime rate (biggest example being one family who have got €135mn of taxpayer money from this in the last two years), with no need to provide much of anything for them.

    Tax cuts especially for you, to get people to visit you more often, with no obligation to cut prices (or try to at least limit price growth) accordingly in good faith.

    MUP, which came about solely to make house parties that came about during the recession be far more expensive to strongly nudge them back to pubs.

    On and on it goes. These folks have put themselves (as an industry, obviously there are some good ones) where they are entirely in the name of short term greed.

    Now the gravy train seems it might be coming to an end, because they broke the engine and alienated the passengers. I have a feeling FFG will be rushing to help them soon enough as always (helps to have friends in high places) , but I would be delighted to be proven wrong.

  10. TemporaryExchange505 on

    As someone inside that industry for the past 20yrs I see no quick fix to the high prices issue. The whole industry needs to be torn down and rebuilt using the model of France or the UK. Up and down every supply chain is a bunch of corporations making money from being middlemen and maintaining monopolies. The population is simply too small for our purchasing power to mean anything real. Foreigners and tourists claim Irish beef is top level stuff. The stuff they eat is but we’re stuck cooking steak from dairy herds because corporations take our best and sell it abroad. Same for fish. The selection and verity of veg, fruit and herbs here is a joke. Because of monopolies of production. And there’s just as many problems with the drinks side of things. The industry isn’t going to get better regardless of VAT levels. The problems are deep and systemic

  11. We can train their staff up to be I’m construction/health care or the guards.

    Can also build on their old pubs or shops. Seems to me like a win win

  12. OutrageousPoison on

    Hmm. I don’t think people here realise how high overheads are running a food business in this country. Profit margins are generally low. It’s really tough work to try keep a hospitality business afloat.
    Complain all you like about working in a small business but for many young and inexperienced people it is their first job. It’s hardly gonna be amazing with bonuses and health insurance.

    Edit: no I don’t and have never run a hospitality business. Worked in some.

  13. RemnantOfSpotOn on

    I was standing on the street today waiting for them to pass at lights and saw this kinda new place I didn’t notice before but I’m not there often so who knows…

    [Brookwood Steak (link to their menu)](https://www.brookwooddublin.com/menus)

    Tomahawk Stake for 2 ppl is 110 eur

    Sides lets say another 25

    2 glasses of wine say another 25

    Thats 160 eur dinner for 2 ppl with 1 drink…without tip.

    Minimal wage hourly is 12.70 so any of their 2 staff would have to work 6 hours each to pay that dinner… their tax not taken out so probably more then 6 hours…and the owner was probably protesting against a minimal wage increase next year and for his tax to be reduced….

  14. RAI will always mention the closures but not the net figure. More restaurant businesses opened in that period than closed. It’s an industry with a high turnover. It attracts idiots with no business sense who think “I make a coffee every morning…I can run a cafe” but fail because they make stupid decisions.

  15. More-Investment-2872 on

    Gave up buying Irish hospitality. Now I go to London, Seville, Rome, for the weekend five or six times a year, a week in Gran Canaria each November and a few weeks Sun holiday each summer. Started this when I realised I was spending €300 on a night out in Cork: meal for two with wine, a couple of drinks and taxis in and out. Skip that for three weeks and you’ll get a nice weekend in Seville on week number 4.

  16. Zero sympathy for the price gouging pricks. They engineered MUP and 10pm off sales closing times to direct people to their pubs and now still want near a billion in tax breaks. When they had said tax breaks previously it was never passed on to customers. Get to fuck!

    If I was near that protest, I would have donated a few eggs in a show of support. Pricks.