Finance Bill 2024

The Finance Bill 2024 was passed in early November, paving the way to the current general election.

I would like to advise the Irish map user community that once again no changes have been made to the discriminatory and what I believe is an anti-competitive application of VAT to Irish print maps.

Discriminatory in that other publishers operating in the print market such as book publishers and newspaper publishers have a 0% VAT rate on their publications. Maps remain at 13.5% VAT rate and lumped in with the ‘Hospitality’ sector, a group who we are given to believe are ripping the public off.

As regards map publication, nothing could be further from the truth. Our maps are sold well below the true cost of production (see post above re OS map prices) and thus the VAT we must hand over is a tax on us. Not only do the state not fund topographic mapping but cartographers like ourselves must thus bizarrely pay the state for the privilege of making better maps for the public.

For the fifteen years or so that we’ve been publishing such maps, we’ve raised these VAT & funding issues with several politicians and ministers for finance including: Michael Noonan, Brendan Howlin, Enda Kenny, Pascal Donohue, Heather Humphreys, Michael Ring, Brian Hayes & Michael McGrath. Malcolm Noonan current Minister for Heritage took an interest in the issue too to no avail.

The amounts involved in the VAT paid over are pathetically small as far as the state is concerned but significant to us, it’d fund a set of data for a new area or a map printing. It’s not my business to advise anyone who to hold accountable but look at the list above and see who has had control of the public finances for most of that time……

#eastwestmapping #irishmaps #mountaineering_ireland