Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a series of questions to put to the Minister on foot of his recommendation to the committee. Why does the new Ireland-Ghana tax treaty contain none of the provisions against treaty abuse agreed in 2015 by the OECD member states, including Ireland, which Ireland has committed to implementing?

In 2017, the finance ministry promised that Ireland would invite tax treaty partners that have not signed the OECD multilateral instrument to introduce anti-abuse measures unilaterally in their tax treaties with Ireland. Did the Government make such an offer to Ghana? If so, why did Ghana decline this offer? If not, why?

What assessment has the Department or Revenue made on the likely spillover effects of the new Ireland-Ghana tax treaty on Ghana's taxing rights and tax revenues in line with the 2015 spillover exercise?

Was the most favoured nation clause in the protocol to the treaty committing Ghana to lowering withholding tax rates for Ireland to match any subsequent rate reductions agreed with future treaty partners included at Ireland's or Ghana's request?

Why does the treaty not permit Ghana to tax capital gains from sales of shares in Irish holding companies deriving their value from moveable assets in Ghana as both the UN tax committee and the IMF have recommended?

Ministers have told the Oireachtas that double tax treaties are beneficial to all sides because they facilitate trade and investment, and yet internal papers that Irish officials prepared in 2012 for cross-Government discussions of the Ghana and Botswana tax treaty negotiations released recently under the freedom of information, FOI, laws admit that when treaties are concluded with developing countries, there is little clear evidence about whether tax treaties boost investment at all, stating that recent empirical literature has been inconclusive in estimating the effect of double tax agreements on the foreign direct investment, FDI, of developing countries. What does the Government think about this contradiction? Will the Minister of State inform us on that point.

Those same internal Government papers also state that tax treaties based on the OECD model which Ireland favours cause capital flows from developing to developed nations and that such treaties allow taxpayers to channel money between jurisdictions to minimise tax payable, particularly if withholding taxes are minimised to encourage investment, a practice which would clearly not be encouraged in relation to developing nations, and yet the new Ireland-Ghana halves Ghanaian withholding taxes on technical service fees and royalties. Why were these international development concerns apparently ignored during the treaty negotiations?