Westmeath is bearing the brunt of the recession

The Midlands is taking the brunt of the recession, two new sets of statistics have revealed. Westmeath businesses have been the hardest hit in the country by the drop in sales taxes, with the amount of VAT taken in in the county dropping almost 19% last year, from €150m in 2007 to €122m last year. The Midlands was one of the worst hit regions, with Westmeath faring the worst, followed by Longford where sales taxes dropped by 17% and Offaly on 14%, the same as Carlow. Pressure is mounting on the Government to cut the rate of VAT in the Budget as opposition parties have said that the exodus of shoppers to the North is not only affecting border counties, but is hitting businesses all across the country. CEO of Athlone Chamber of Commerce Siobhan Bigley said leakage to the North and online shopping were factors. However, she said there were also a number of retailers in Athlone with head offices elsewhere and perhaps their VAT returns were centralised through head offices located outside of Westmeath, resulting in a lower figure for Westmeath that did not truly reflect sales activities in the county. And while the drop in sales taxes is a clear indication of how businesses are being impacted by the economic downturn, it is also a reflection of how the wider community is being impacted. Meanwhile, figures from the CSO show that the Midlands are most at risk of poverty. The CSO's 2008 Survey of Income and Living Conditions in Ireland published last week, showed that people living in the Midlands were most at risk of poverty in 2008 compared with the other seven regions of the country, at 23.5%.