Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the 2015 budget, I introduced the new document, A Road Map for Ireland's Tax Competitiveness, to update the objectives set out in the 2013 international tax strategy and to set out a clear path for this country's tax competitiveness into the future. The roadmap set out a comprehensive package of measures designed to reposition Ireland to reap the benefits of sustainable foreign direct investment in a changing international tax landscape.

The knowledge development box, KDB, which the Deputy has asked about, was one of the measures announced in the roadmap. The knowledge development box is not intended to be a replacement for the so-called "double Irish", which was never part of the Irish tax offering, and it was just one example of the many international tax planning arrangements designed by tax and legal advisers to take advantage of mismatches between the tax rules in two or more countries. However, the reality is that the "double Irish" was damaging Ireland's reputation. For that reason, I introduced a change to Ireland's corporate tax residence rules in budget 2015. I view the knowledge development box as a potentially positive measure for Ireland. It is recognised internationally that investment and growth in OECD economies is increasingly driven by knowledge-based investment, which is related to research and development and intellectual property. Putting in place an attractive tax offering for developing and commercially exploiting intellectual property is therefore important to encourage companies to develop their knowledge-based capital in Ireland and for our continued success in attracting foreign direct investment to Ireland.

A public consultation to gather views on how the knowledge development box should operate was launched on 14 January and will remain open until 8 April. The consultation paper invites submissions from interested parties on their views of how the knowledge development box should be designed to ensure it meets the key objective of being the most competitive in class, within the agreed international parameters for fair tax competition in this area. As is the case with all public consultations that have been undertaken by my Department on corporation tax, input is welcomed from all sections of society and I encourage all interested parties to have an input to this process.

With regard to my recent visit to the US, I met people from a number of major multinational companies, representative bodies and tax advisers with the chief executive of IDA Ireland, Mr. Martin Shanahan, to update them on Ireland's international tax strategy. The feedback from investors on the medium-term corporation tax strategy, which is set out in the roadmap document,was very positive.

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