Give us a chance to sort out housing and deliver 9% VAT rate, McDonald says

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has appealed to the public to “give us a chance” to fix housing and reduce the VAT rate for hospitality.

The party said that if there is a Sinn Fein-led government, they will reduce the VAT rate for businesses from 13.5 per cent to nine per cent for five years.

Fine Gael has proposed an 11 per cent VAT rate for food-related businesses, which has been criticised by Fianna Fáil and the Social Democrats.

A recent Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll put Fine Gael on 25 per cent support, ahead of both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin on 19 per cent.

The poll also suggests a surge in support for independent candidates, who have gone up four points to 20 per cent.

When asked about the poll result, which said her party was down one percentage point, Ms McDonald said: “We’re absolutely convinced that that appetite for change is very real and very live.”

She said the party’s proposals offered “to make life bearable and more affordable for people” and that “people are rallying to that message”.

“We’re in this to win, and we will bring our message of change and hope and progress and an alternative government, and ask people to give us the chance,” she said in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim.

“Give us the chance to reintroduce the 9 per cent VAT rate. Give us the chance to sort out housing, to deliver childcare at 10 euro per child per day, to invest really heavily in our communities, urban and rural.”

She said that she feels “full of positivity” with just two weeks to go until polling day, which she described as “an eternity” in politics.

“We’re listening very carefully to what people are telling us out on the ground and many, many people are reflecting an appetite for change, and now the job for Sinn Féin is to reassure people that Sinn Féin is that most powerful vehicle for change. If you want to change the government – vote for Sinn Féin,” she added.

Asked why the nine per cent VAT proposal was not in the party’s pre-Budget submission, she said that they did not know how much it would have cost to scrap it at the time.

She said they now know it would cost €605 million a year and the cost of not introducing the measure was the risk it posed to restaurants, cafes and jobs.

She said in the past year alone 600 businesses had closed which cost jobs and impacted the vitality of towns and villages.

She said: “Rather than half measures, we are proposing to go the whole hog, because nine per cent is the necessary level. We have costed that, we have priced it into our plans for government, and we will deliver that within the first 100 days of government.”

Martin Kenny said a billion euro of the Apple tax money would be spent on infrastructure in local communities across the country and said that “nowhere has been left left behind more than the northwest”.

“No part of the island should be left behind,” Ms McDonald added.