Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept at all the suggestion from Deputy Boyd Barrett that the Government is either embarrassed or humiliated in respect of our corporate tax rate. The Deputy should talk to those concerned and they will tell him that despite the fact that Ireland has a solid rate of tax, other matters are added on to this, particularly the talent pool available to multinational companies coming in here. However, the Deputy has been clear and consistent in his arguments in this regard.

There is no question of Ireland being involved or wishing to be involved in tax scams or tax havens. Last year, the Government abolished the stateless concept because of reputational damage and at the behest of the Government, Ireland now has taken the decision to end the "double Irish", to have clarity until the end of 31 December 2020 and to have a new regime of incorporation for new companies from next year.

We must also consider the nature and appropriateness of what kind of information patent box we put in place here. Some of those that apply around Europe have different characteristics and what we want is one that is appropriate for our needs. That means we want to continue to be attractive for companies which may well wish to incorporate their intellectual property facilities here as well as their headquarters. As I have said to the Deputy on many occasions previously, we like to see that the plates that announce the name of a company are backed by a substantial number of workers who pay their tax here and if companies wish to avail of incorporating their intellectual property here also, we will have an appropriate information patent box that applies in that regard. That consultation, public discussion and otherwise will take place and will be led by the Minister for Finance. The Deputy will also be aware that we abolished the research and development credit base year, as it is called, and we enhanced the special assignee relief programme for companies which wish to bring in people of a specialist nature here.

I completely agree with the Deputy that we have absolutely under-performed in terms of forestry and the plantation of trees in this country for very many years. I come from the location where the first Minister with responsibility for forestry, the late Joseph Blowick, came from and he started off little forestry locations for seedlings, small trees and all the rest of it. God knows there is much ground in the far west that cannot grow forestry because of either the salt content or the poor quality of the soil. The Deputy may be aware that many of the forests that were planted in an attempt to grow spruce or whatever other species failed because of a lack of depth of soil and other geographical circumstances.

The Government decided not to sell off Coillte. The Minister of State present is actively involved in discussions on an enhanced forestry programme, which will be published before too long, and which will include many incentives for people to get involved in forestry and to plant land that might not be beneficial for high quality dairy produce or whatever. We hope that can improve the position. Real incentives are being provided by Government to help individuals or companies with ground that might be suitable for planting. It is not commercially viable in many cases to plant ground that has very poor potential for tree growing. That is an issue that is the focus of some consideration here.

The closing down of the double Irish concept will not raise any additional Irish tax here. The decision was made genuinely to protect and enhance Ireland's international tax reputation. As it stands, an Irish registered, non-resident company is already taxable in Ireland in respect of any activities that it undertakes in Ireland through a branch or an agency. The discussion will now move to the point of what is the most appropriate information patent box that can apply to Ireland. As Deputy Martin rightly pointed out, we need to be able to compete for the incorporation of intellectual property or whatever with other countries and it is important that we have clarity and certainty about that, and that discussion will take place in the future.

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