'Our business can't cope': Cork business owners to protest in Dublin over 'lack of supports'

Business owners from across the country will protest in Dublin today on a day of action to highlight what they say is the unsustainable cost of doing business and lack of Government support.

Cork businesses from the tourism, hospitality, and retail sectors will be among those attending the protest, organised by the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI), Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI), and other small business representative groups.

President-elect of the VFI and owner of the Castle Inn in Cork city, Michael O’Donovan, will be attending the protest in the hopes of securing more meaningful support from Government and preventing Cork pubs and restaurants from having to close.

He told The Echo: “Government policy over the last few years have been to move towards a living wage, but they’ve moved far too fast for our industry. Our industry is a low-margin business model, and when the Government try to put such high wage increases on us — what they’ve proposed is a 36% pay rise over three years — our business can’t cope with that.

“There’s also the sick days, and nobody wants their staff to be sick, if they’re sick they are compensated — we pay employer’s PRSI and we understood that was what it was for. We pay a high rate, over 11%, so we were pushing the Government to try and reduce that to counteract some of the costs we had.

“All their policies together have made the costs of doing business really difficult at the moment.”

The protest comes weeks after what Mr O’Donovan described as “a very, very disappointing budget”.

“They gave businesses a €4,000 energy grant that’s worth just under €77 a week. This will not make any significant dent in the cost increases facing businesses next year. The situation at the moment is that our energy bills are up at 28c or 29c a unit, which is high compared to 2019 when it was 12c-16c.”

The RAI and VFI have urged Taoiseach Simon Harris to meet with them urgently to collaborate on proactive, immediate measures that will prevent widespread hospitality business closures over the winter and ensure long-term viability for the sector.