Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not be lacking in courage in trying to deal with issues that I believe need to be dealt with. I was addressing my comments in regard to the Deputy's proposals for minimum corporation tax rates and minimum tax rates for individuals as opposed to point that she made about tax expenditures and loopholes. I would be very happy to work with the committee, either in the context of the finance Bill or after it, regarding views members have about issues that we might need to tackle.

Deputy Burton is correct about the changes that have been made in our income tax code that have consequence of creating minimum effective tax rates for individuals who pay income tax. If we did not introduce minimum tax rates for corporation tax and business tax at a time when our country was broke and we were trying to find additional ways of raising taxes, that shows the difficulty in doing it. A measure such as that proposed, particularly in regard to corporation tax. would pose huge problems for the predictability of that tax code. As the Deputy will see from the Coffey report, of which I know she has copy and that she debated it with Mr. Coffey a while ago, one of the tables in it shows the gradual narrowing of the differential between effective and nominal rates of corporate taxation.