Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 February 2015

Public Accounts Committee

2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013

10:00 am

Mr. Martin Shanahan:

No, that is incorrect. As I responded to Deputy Deasy earlier, it is part of the arsenal and I believe that there is probably too much emphasis on tax both internationally and sometimes nationally. For companies to operate here, they need to be able to set up and operate in a business environment that enables them to attract the talent they need. When I walk into boardrooms across the world, talent availability is the number one thing raised with us. A competitive tax regime is absolutely a help in attracting companies to Ireland and we should not be apologetic about that. We need a competitive tax regime to do it.