Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The discussion will involve a state-of-play report on discussions regarding the FTT proposal. As I said in my speech, there were originally 11 participants. One has now dropped out and the number is reduced to ten. However, progress on the FTT proposal remains slow, with many open issues to be resolved. Ireland is not one of the countries intending to implement the FTT. We believe an FTT must be implemented at global level to be effective, although we could accept an FTT if agreement were reached across the 28 European Union members. With the United Kingdom not participating in the FTT, it would be very difficult for Ireland to participate. As the Deputy knows, there are 30,000 people working in the financial services industry in Dublin. If there were an FTT in Dublin that did not apply in the City of London, there would be a migration of business from Dublin to London without any doubt.

The conversations among the participating members are now about taxing shares and certain derivatives. We already have stamp duty of 1% on share transactions. Therefore, in effect, we have a stronger FTT than any that is now being discussed among the ten participating members. The United Kingdom is in a similar position. It has 0.5% stamp duty on share transactions. When I last talked to some colleagues about it, it was suggested that stamp duty of approximately 0.1% or 0.2% should apply to share transactions in Europe. That was a French proposal, if I recall correctly. I do not believe the position has moved very much beyond that.

With all the talk, discussion and positioning, and with our having been regarded as not participating, it must be borne in mind that historically we have had a stronger FTT than what is envisaged by the ten participating members, with the exception that they intend to apply the share stamp duty-type levy to some derivatives also. As yet, however, I do not have a specific list of what derivatives they have in mind. Moreover, it is fair to say that Europe very often moves on the level of principle by introducing a measure at a very low level, and then it builds on it. Some of the leading champions of an FTT might envisage introducing stamp duty on shares and derivatives at a very low level with a view to increasing it subsequently. We will keep watching this. If it suits us, we will join. If it does not, we will not. At present, it would not be in our interest, particularly for the Irish financial services industry, especially that in Dublin, which has 30,000 employees.