Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The rate of capital gains tax was mentioned to me as recently as last night at a meeting I was attending. We can make a submission to the Minister for Finance on it but it will be his decision ultimately.

Regarding the Trump Administration and the tax regime in the US, there is no doubt that American investment is very important to Ireland's economic well-being. The US is the largest source of overseas investment here, accounting for more than 70% of our foreign direct investment. We are monitoring the evolving investment environment in the US very closely. Despite the legislative changes that have been introduced there, I remain confident that American companies will still require a global presence and that Ireland will remain well positioned to serve as a location from which those firms can internationalise their business. It is important to remember also that US companies invest in Europe and in Ireland for many reasons. The European market remains among the largest and the richest in the world. US companies will still want to invest here to capture markets and access skills and innovation. It became clear to me how highly US companies speak of the Irish workforce when I visited the United States two weeks ago. They talked about our most attractive features being our highly skilled workforce and pool of talent that they can access, that we are an English-speaking country and their access to a market of 500 million consumers in the EU. The fact that we allow EU nationals to come into this country and that they are welcome here is also a big plus in terms of their decision to invest in Ireland. We continue to monitor the changes in the tax regulation there but there is a journey yet to go on that. We continue to go abroad and market Ireland as a destination in which one can do business in a safe environment with good regulations and with a highly talented skills pool.

The Deputy will be aware that the issue involving the Succeed in Ireland initiative has been going on for some time. It remains our intention to undertake an independent review of the Succeed in Ireland programme. That review, once completed, will provide us with a better understanding of the initiative's results and the contribution it has made to employment generation in this State. We will then be able to make a determination on its long-term future. As I have said previously, and as my predecessor has also made clear, we cannot proceed with the review until it is possible to assess the projected costs of the programme. Such an assessment is an indispensable prerequisite if the review is to determine whether the programme provided value for money for the taxpayer. That cannot be made until ConnectIreland resolves, or otherwise concludes, its dispute with IDA Ireland on the operation of the initiative and the number of jobs it has created. It is essential that the dispute be resolved or concluded to allow the review to go ahead.

I have made that clear in the Dáil and in correspondence to ConnectIreland. Once this happens, we will proceed swiftly with the review, which will include publishing all the submissions made to the Department last year as part of the public consultation on the terms of the review.