Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance

Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed)

11:00 am

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Tóibín has asked me a follow-up question which I am very happy to answer, although it is not directly linked to his amendment which we cannot support. We will wait and see the outcome of the impact assessment, but I remain to be convinced about the benefit of taxpayer information being publicised. I want to have an independent and robust tax authority that has all the information available to it.

Like I said, the tax information relating to the Deputy, me, his and my party is not public. Are we going to decide that certain people's or organisations' tax information will be public? That is why the European Union is examining the issue and why there is an impact assessment. It is important to recognise the progress that has been made. If Ireland does one thing on its own, that can have knock-on consequences. The world is not as simple as we would like to be at times.