The 9 per cent VAT rate has been welcomed by restaurants but does the hospitality sector actually need it?

Hello, I'm Ciarán Hancock.

Welcome to Inside Business.

On this week's show, I'll be hosting a debate on the merits or otherwise of the 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector, which kicked in on Wednesday.

Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, will argue the case for why Barry Rontree, Assistant Professor of Economics at Trinity College, will tell me why he believes this is a bad policy by government.

In the second half of the show, John McCartney, a lecturer in property economics at TUD Dublin, will explain why he thinks the downturn in the Dublin office market is a permanent one and not just cyclical, as some in the industry would argue.

First to the 9% VAT rate for hospitality, which was introduced by government on Wednesday on a permanent basis for food service companies and hairdressers.

This followed a pledge in last year's budget to cut the rate and a long lobbying campaign by many in the industry.

But at a cost of €681 million in a full year, is it a good way to spend taxpayers' money? And should the government have looked at other ways to support the sector rather than via this tax break? To discuss this, I was joined in studio by Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, who lobbied hard for the VAT rate cut.

And on the line by Barry Rountree, Assistant Professor of Economics at Trinity College, who's opposed to this policy move by the Minister for Finance, Simon Harris.