80% of restaurants 'losing money'

MORE THAN eight out of 10 restaurants are now losing money and several hundred have closed down since the downturn began, the Restaurants Association of Ireland has said as it launched its rescue plan for the sector.

The association’s chief executive Adrian Cummins estimated that 15 to 20 per cent of restaurants had closed their doors because of the recession. He warned that one in three restaurants would close in the next six months if the Government did not take urgent action. Restaurants in rural areas were being hardest hit.

The association has drawn up a 10-point plan to rescue the sector, as part of its pre-budget submission to the Minister for Finance.

Proposals include reducing the national minimum wage from €8.65 to €7.65 per hour and abolishing the minimum catering rates, which are 8 per cent higher than the national minimum wage.

Mr Cummins said the catering minimum wage for Spanish workers was just €1.93 and was €5.38 in the UK.

The restaurants association wants the scheme which pays workers more for working on Sundays abolished. Workers currently receive a 33 per cent premium for working on Sundays. Mr Cummins said it was not viable for many restaurants to open on a Sunday because of this.

The 10-point plan calls for a reduction in local authority charges, including a decrease in commercial rates to businesses by 10 per cent in 2010. Mr Cummins said local authorities had introduced several “stealth taxes” to increase their income when the Government should be doing all in its power to help small businesses.

The association wants the air travel tax scrapped and says the Government should introduce free public transport to all over 65s who visit Ireland. Mr Cummins said we would benefit from the “huge discretionary spending power” of this age group.