The hospitality poor mouth

There's no mention of helping customers or passing on VAT to customers.

Perhaps. But there is now.

The VAT reduction was introduced to increase footfall in the hospitality sector and the only way to do that was if the sector passed it onto the consumer and the consumer saw a reduction in price. But instead the industry pocketed it and many businesses increased their prices too.

The reduction in VAT to 9% wasn't meant to give Hoteliers, hairdressers and restaurant owners a few extra bob to put in their bank accounts. It was meant to encourage people to get out more.

TBH, I wouldn't mind if the government did introduce a reduced VAT rate, so long as the reductions was passed on to the consumer and prices came down. But A. we know it won't, and B. there'd be no real way of making sure that it has been.

they didn’t abuse it. Inflation was crazy food, electricity, wages, insurance etc all went up significantly. If they were abusing it. They would not be closing

I paid e11.71 for 3 this week.Won't tell you where.That included a portion of delicious chicken nuggets.A yearly or twice yearly treat-I didn't eat them all myself

I said was and were. So maybe think about raising your comprehension of English by a few bars before you post anymore snotty comments.

My point was it has gotten way better not worse as someone else had stated.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2023/0122/1350208-profits-at-supermacs-group-rose-62-in-2021-to-37-7m/#:~:text=%E2%82%AC38.9m.-,The%20group%20recorded%20a%20post%20tax%20profit%20of%20%E2%82%AC24.08,at%20the%20end%20of%202021.

Nearly 20% net margins (not gross), across multiple businesses.

In fairness, it's not like people just suddenly realised that having food delivered to your door was more convenient than having to go out to get it. Everyone has always known that.

Look, there's no great mystery here. It's simply a matter of price. It's just not worth the money to go out to a restaurant these days.

There's no value in it. So a lot more people just aren't willing to pay what's being asked. Often times for pretty basic fare.

The problem is some customers seem to look at the food on their plate, think about what price they could buy that food for themselves and then (foolishy) decide that they're being ripped off. They ignore all the other costs that a restaurant has to cover within the price of their meal.

People use all kinds of services every day and never question or complain about the price the way they do about eating out.

Im an accountant and restaurants/coffee shops that I do accounts for are struggling with the high costs of insurance, rent, rates, food, utilities, staff etc. Some of the wages costs and esb/gas bills Im seeing are staggering. Its a hard business to make money in. People don't seem to realise the high costs involved and that in many cases they are currently getting really good value in what they are paying.