Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was not requested, so we did not progress it. Double taxation agreements benefit trade and investment. This is our 74th agreement. There are 3,000 in total between countries. If one looks at our EU partners, Germany has more than 100 while the UK has 130 double taxation agreements. Double taxation of companies is not a good thing. It damages business and the objective is to try to encourage business between countries and give companies opportunities to go to a country, trade and have a double taxation agreement so that it is able to pay tax in a single jurisdiction if it chooses to do so, meeting of course, the requirements of the double taxation treaty. I am satisfied that the double taxation treaties are good. They benefit developing countries, and they benefit companies which have the opportunity, and which choose to enter those jurisdictions and participate.

Nobody forces a country into doing a tax treaty with Ireland. Ghana approached Ireland in relation to this. Ireland's treaties with developing countries generally include provisions based on the UN model treaty, which is designed for the developing countries. This can be seen from double taxation agreement, DTA, that is before the committee today. From a developing country's perspective, our DTA with Ghana is fair and allows for withholding tax on royalties and technical fees in accordance with the UN model, which it requested.

What was the Deputy's question about the OECD model in relation to capital flows?