Brian Fallon to head restaurants lobby group
Local restraurateur Brian Fallon is taking over the presidency of the Restaurant Owners Association of Ireland this month, writes Brian Byrne. He replaces Paul Caden, who has held the position for two years.
"Filling his shoes will be quite a task, because he has done a fantastic job in growing the membership and raising the profile of the organisation in a very difficult time," Brian told the Diary. "When he took over, the Association was in contraction and had already lost about 80 members in the year prior to his presidency."
There is still plenty of room to grow, with about 400 restaurants and 100 associate members currently in the Association, out of a total of some 5,000 food outlets in the country. "My manifesto would be that it is almost an obligation on every food producer to be a member, because it is our voice," Brian says. "In order to run effective campaigns, you need numbers."
The Restaurants Association of Ireland was formed in 1970 as a lobby to represent the industry at Government level on issues such as taxation and restaurant liquor licensing, that last a particular concern at the time. The efforts in 1986 to get VAT reduced from 25% to 10% was one of the Association's major successes.
Since then the Association has worked for improvements particularly in the areas of taxation, licensing, standards, and curriculum development, both at Irish Government level and also at European level. The RAI now represents operators in the areas of fine dining, casual dining, ethnic, family, coffee shops, hotel and pub restaurants.
"Filling his shoes will be quite a task, because he has done a fantastic job in growing the membership and raising the profile of the organisation in a very difficult time," Brian told the Diary. "When he took over, the Association was in contraction and had already lost about 80 members in the year prior to his presidency."
There is still plenty of room to grow, with about 400 restaurants and 100 associate members currently in the Association, out of a total of some 5,000 food outlets in the country. "My manifesto would be that it is almost an obligation on every food producer to be a member, because it is our voice," Brian says. "In order to run effective campaigns, you need numbers."
The Restaurants Association of Ireland was formed in 1970 as a lobby to represent the industry at Government level on issues such as taxation and restaurant liquor licensing, that last a particular concern at the time. The efforts in 1986 to get VAT reduced from 25% to 10% was one of the Association's major successes.
Since then the Association has worked for improvements particularly in the areas of taxation, licensing, standards, and curriculum development, both at Irish Government level and also at European level. The RAI now represents operators in the areas of fine dining, casual dining, ethnic, family, coffee shops, hotel and pub restaurants.
