Blazing Salads, Dillingers, Assassination Custard and Brasserie Sixty Six in Dublin, Church Lane and Sage in County Cork, and Barnacles in Galway.
In Cork, the foodie capital of Ireland, the chef and founder of the renowned Ballymaloe cookery school, Darina Allen, is enraged. “I’m 76 years of age. I’ve never in my life gone out on the streets to protest before, but I got up at 6am to get the train from Cork. I was determined to support the cause,” she said.
They were confident the government would respond to their campaign to reverse the VAT rise, given the healthy state of the country’s finances, pointing out that back in the 1980s doldrums VAT was just 6%. But when the finance minister, Jack Chambers, unveiled his budget on 2 October there was a €4,000 energy bill support, but no movement on VAT.
Others are alarmed by the impact the restaurant crisis is having on main street Ireland and wonder if independent outlets will be replaced by chains that can shoulder higher costs, such as Pret a Manger or Carluccio’s, which are both already in Ireland. Murphy says the VAT hike last August left him with €25,000 extra to pay out, with no clemency for those struggling with the little to no profit scenario they now operate in. “You get a demand every quarter and if they don’t get what they ask for you risk getting a sheriff knocking on your door who will literally empty your premises,” he said.Blazing Salads closed after 37 years in early October. A week later, there was little sign of its existence, with its name painted over.