Ryanair: Irish Govt’s €10 tourist tax to be ruled illegal by EU Commission
01-Dec-2010 Ryanair, Ireland’s favourite airline, today (1st Dec) released Freedom of Information records from the Dept of Finance which confirm that in March 2010 the EU Commission initiated infringement proceedings against the Irish Govt’s €10 tourist tax which has been applied illegally in Ireland.
These infringement proceedings focus on the fact that the lower €2 tax, for flights within 300 km of Dublin (whereas a €10 tax is applied to EU flights of over 300km) is contrary to EU law, which requires that the same tax rate should be applied to all intra-EU journeys regardless of length.
These infringement proceedings make clear that the Irish Govt must either scrap this unlawful €10 tourist tax or impose the same €2 rate on all intra-EU flights. Ryanair believes that these infringement proceedings will now force the Govt to scrap this damaging tourist tax (which has failed miserably to generate its forecasted revenues).
Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said:
"Ryanair made a formal complaint about this illegal €10 tourist tax to the EU Commission in July 2009. These Freedom of Information records clearly show that the Commission agrees with Ryanair's complaint that this €10 tax has been illegally applied here in Ireland. The Irish Govt must therefore scrap this damaging €10 tax or reduce it to €2 in the December budget. Ryanair expects that the Govt will scrap its failed and damaging €10 tourist tax."