So Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, Stormont’s Minister for Finance, deserves a fair hearing over his tax U-turn last week. O’Dowd halted a revaluation of business rates, the equivalent of commercial rates in the Republic, following lobbying from the hospitality industry. The final straw for Sinn Féin appears to have been pubs promoting “John O’Dowd pints” at outrageous prices, a stunt widely reported in the media and circulated online. Sinn Féin has ruled out any significant reforms or rises to household rates, most recently under a review conducted by Archibald. Three days before O’Dowd’s U-turn, the Stormont Assembly passed a Sinn Féin motion calling for more “revenue-raising powers” to be devolved from Westminster to Stormont.

Source: The Irish Times February 05, 2026 07:31 UTC