Just deserts, but just for desserts?

This paper analyses the perceived beneficiaries of reduced Value Added Tax (VAT) rates set by successive Irish governments over the period 2011-2026, and whether those beneficiaries were perceived as deserving. A second reduced rate of VAT has been applied to the hospitality industry on three separate occasions since 2011, despite initially being conceived of as a temporary stimulus during an economic downturn. This paper combines Wilson’s typology of policies and Schneider and Ingram’s Social Construction theory, arguing that until 2024 the second reduced rate of 9% was applied at times when the policy was perceived to have diffuse benefits, or when the hospitality industry was socially constructed as being deserving of benefits. When neither of these conditions held, the policy was eventually reversed. Neither of these conditions held at the time of the announcement of the most recent introduction of the second reduced rate in October 2025, indicating the potential for ongoing political turbulence surrounding this policy until a more stable political resolution is arrived at. This paper contains specific findings on the segmentation of target populations into ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ subgroups, the delivery of benefits to ‘undeserving’ populations, and implications for the rationale at EU level for the application of reduced rates of VAT to hospitality industries.