Greater inclusiveness is so important throughout our society, but especially in the Arts – glad to support this and feature in the article here.

I recently brought this issue up in the Seanad (you can see it here), and will continue to do so.

I am disappointed to learn that The Sun and The Irish Independent have joined an increasingly lengthy list of newspapers that have quietly undone the price reductions that were implemented as a result of the VAT reduction in July.

Following the reduction of the rate of VAT for this sector, the price of The Sun went down from €1.00 to €0.95, with the state effectively paying the difference. However, The Sun has now raised the price back to €1.00 today and has pocketed the difference. This is greed at the cost of both the public and the government.

The Sun isn’t the only newspaper that seems to be doing this. As part of my VATWatch campaign, people have been contacting me about other newspapers quietly undoing the reductions – these include The Mirror, the Irish Independent, the Financial Times and the Sunday Independent.

This VAT reduction was brought in as a temporary measure in order to assist this sector, and individual titles in this business seem to be taking the money for consumers and holding onto it. This isn’t good enough, and I’d urge members of the public to keep their eyes open and let these newspapers know that this sort of thing won’t be accepted.