The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) has called for Budget 2026 – set to be delivered in October – to focus on improved connectivity, competitiveness and investment, when looking at Ireland’s domestic and inbound tourism sector.
In its newly-published pre-budget submission to Government, ITIC warned the tourism sector faces an “unprecedented” time of geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.
Regarding connectivity, ITIC said the passenger cap at Dublin Airport must be lifted permanently and Cork and Shannon airports must be supported in line with EU state aid levels.
With regard to competitiveness, ITIC wants the promised reduction to 9% in VAT for hospitality and services businesses to be extended to include attractions, adventure holiday operators and caravan parks. Better supports are also needed for business costs including energy, insurance, excise and labour, ITIC said.
Regarding investment, ITIC said while tourism generates close to €3bn a year to the Irish economy, annual state investment in the sector only amounts to €251m by comparison. This, the organisation, said is “wholly inadequate to meet the challenges ahead”.
ITIC is calling for a further €90m investment in the upcoming budget to allow for a better regional spread of tourism, better sustainability measures, the country’s food tourism plans and basic market diversification.
ITIC said this budget increase is also to be expected in light of tourism being moved to an economic portfolio and now in the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.
ITIC chief executive, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, said: “Now is the time for Government to control the controllables and focus on domestic home-grown sectors. Tourism is the largest indigenous industry and biggest regional employer and needs to be supported in October’s budget”.
In its submission, ITIC said: “In parallel to tourism funding, Government has built up a surplus of nearly €2 billion in the National Training Fund (NTF), which is funded by annual contributions by employers worth 1% of payroll.
“This has the potential to deliver a step change in industry-led skills development and incentivise industry to scale investment and engagement with the education sector. There was a modest release of this announced in last year’s budget and ITIC advocate that the same is done this year and should be earmarked for labour-intensive sectors such as the tourism and hospitality.”
