Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Green Paper on Capital Markets Union: Discussion

2:00 pm

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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So they cannot take EIB money.

I want to pick up on tax policy. Ms Breheny is in the industry and I accept that her knowledge and expertise on this far exceeds mine. I have spoken to venture capital funds based here and in London, Boston and the Valley. There is a growing pool of venture capital money in Dublin and we are getting an exciting hub here, but whenever I have talked to people about what it takes to invest, I have never heard mention of tax. The lobby groups mention tax all the time and never stop talking about it. From a producer's perspective, Ireland has an extremely low corporation tax rate and the lowest employer's PRSI rate in Europe. For the chambers' members, who are ultimately the people in whom funds are investing, we are highly tax-efficient. I am not saying Ms Breheny is wrong, but I have never heard an actual investor say the tax policy in a country-----