PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MINISTER Jack Chambers said he would “fully support” legislation enabling local authorities to implement a tourism tax.
Chambers’s Fianna Fáil colleague Paul McAuliffe floated the idea of the introduction of a Dublin Local Authority Visitor Levy at the party’s parliamentary meeting last week, where it received “unanimous support”.
If enacted, the legislation would enable the four Dublin local authorities to collect a levy on visitor accommodation that would provide “a new stream of funding aimed at improving the public realm across the capital and surrounding areas”.
Such a levy would provide millions in funding for the city and four local authorities’ budgets, McAuliffe said.
“This levy wouldn’t be another tax on locals but would offer a revenue stream funded by those that visit the city, in most instances on a short-term basis.”
Such levies already exist in many major European cities, and take the form of a small add-on tax to accommodation.
The legislation would allow for authorities to make the decision on whether it would like to impose the levy, rather than automatically introducing it.
Speaking to reporters at the GPO this afternoon, Chambers said it’s something he supports.
“I fully support developing a tourism tax and enabling provisions for local authorities to raise revenue within maybe agreed policy parameters, which would be set out.
“It’s happened across multiple other cities as revenue-raising measures that are ringfenced for local authorities, and I think it’s a policy government should advance in the period ahead.”
He said it’s something the government should work on collectively between the Department of Finance and the Department of Housing.
Chambers added that he believes it would be an effective revenue-raising measure that would allow for local authorities to reinvest in the city.
“I think government should consider enabling provisions and giving the discretion and the devolution to local authorities to again advance that proposals and be accountable locally for how they spend the revenue that’s raised, and I think it’s something government should consider in advance,” he said.