Ireland

The Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) is calling for a tax amnesty for hospitality firms to help them survive beyond the expected lifting of restrictions next month, the Irish Independent reported. It comes after insolvency experts predicted that more than 1,000 firms could close their doors from next year, once government supports end and pandemic debts are called in. Retailers and business organisations say small, domestic, independent firms will be worst hit.

Ireland will no longer require vaccinated arriving travellers to present a negative COVID-19 test, Prime Minister Micheál Martin said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A government spokesman said the change would take effect on Thursday. Unvaccinated travellers will still be required to show a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before arrival. Ireland introduced the testing measure a month ago to slow the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant. Omicron now accounts for almost all Irish infections, which have rocketed to record levels in the last two weeks.

Government tax receipts surged to a record €68.4 billion last year as consumer spending and employment rebounded from the pandemic at a sharper-than-expected rate, the Irish Times reported. Year-end exchequer returns, published by the Department of Finance, show tax receipts rose by almost 20 per cent or €11 billion last year despite the negative impact of restrictions to curb the coronavirus at the start of the year. The latest numbers pointed to an exchequer deficit of €7.4 billion for 2021, an improvement of nearly €5 billion on 2020.

Restaurateur Jay Bourke faces a battle to get court approval for a massive debt write-off, after a creditor owed €12.2m lodged an objection to the proposal, the Sunday World reported. Mr. Bourke has debts totaling €13.7m, and it emerged in November he intended to ask the High Court to sanction a personal insolvency arrangement (PIA) that would wipe out around €12.5m of what he owes and allow him to keep his €1.4m family home in Rathmines, south Dublin.

A former member of the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC), the Dáil’s State spending watchdog, has asked it to investigate the payment of taxpayer-funded Covid supports to businesses that subsequently distributed cash to shareholders in the form of dividends, the Irish Times reported.

Ireland may benefit from another surge in corporation tax despite having to give up its prized 12.5 per cent rate, the chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) has said, the Irish Times reported. Instead of losing €2 billion a year as the Government has forecast, Ireland could benefit directly from the recent global agreement on tax, which will involve a new minimum rate of 15 per cent, Ifac chairman Sebastian Barnes.

The liquidators of the Irish arm of failed German electronic payments group Wirecard are focusing their investigation into an almost €400 million fraud on four key areas, its creditors have been told, the Irish Times reported. In a report issued last week to creditors of Wirecard UK and Ireland Ltd, the joint liquidators, Ken Fennell and James Anderson of accountancy firm Deloitte, said they have completed two interim reports for the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) on the Dublin-based company’s collapse.

The Irish High Court has refused to approve a Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA) for a businessman with over €3m in debts, the Irish Examiner reported. Mr Justice Mark Sanfey said that he could not approve the PIA for Daniel Drew. In his judgement, the judge said the court had no jurisdiction to entertain an application to approve the PIA, which had been rejected at a meeting of Mr Drew's creditors in 2019. In his judgement, the judge said that Mr Drew operates a petrol and convenience store in Turner's Cross, Cork.

Ireland could face a sharp rise in company insolvencies as government pandemic supports are wound down, and a higher rate of company failure could persist for some time, according to a new paper from the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC), the Irish Times reported. It says that the Government faces a difficult balancing act as the pandemic supports are wound down, with the risk that moving too quickly could push some viable companies to the wall.

Boom-era property player Bernard McNamara’s multi-million euro pension pot is protected from his creditors following an EU court ruling, the Irish Times reported. The British high court declared Mr McNamara bankrupt in 2012 on his own application. He was one of many Irish developers who opted to bankrupt themselves in the UK, where the bankruptcy period was one year, rather than in the Republic, where it was 12 years at the time. The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that creditors cannot get access to an insurance policy that was part of his Irish-registered pension.