Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 42:

In page 40, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:“27. The Minister shall, within nine months from the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on options available to restrict banks from carrying forward losses against taxable profits of the banks, which could result in many institutions paying no tax for the foreseeable future. ”.

This amendment, if enacted, would provide that, within nine months of the passing of the Act, the Minister would prepare and lay before the Dáil a report on the options available to restrict banks from carrying forward losses against taxable profits of the banks, as this could result in many institutions paying no tax for the foreseeable future. These are profitable institutions. While we hold significant shareholdings in some of these institutions, that may not be the case in the next number of years. Is the Minister concerned about the massive losses accumulated by the banks which are available to write off against their profits in the future?

We can see from recent reports by Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks that Bank of Ireland, as of the 2013 accounts, has €2.3 billion in deferred tax assets, while AIB has €3.36 billion, which, according to its annual report, will take 20 years to write down. Is this an issue that concerns the Minister and is it something he is willing to examine? Could we examine and report on this issue? A huge amount of losses are available to these two financial institutions, which are profitable at this point in time, to offset against profits for tax purposes in the future.