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

I do not have figures for previous years but I will have them sent to the Deputy. Our position on a financial transactions tax has not changed since June when I last replied to a question from the Deputy on this matter.

In Europe, one of the countries that was involved, Estonia, has dropped out and the other ten have not yet reached agreement. I think they are about to make a report but, so far, I do not see that there is going to be agreement to any particular financial transactions tax emerging from the enhanced co-operation between the now ten member states. There is still quite a difference of opinion among the members participating in the enhanced co-operation and, outside of that, there is a wide divergence of views.

The Irish position is driven by our proximity to the City of London and the view, certainly up to Brexit, that if we imposed a financial transactions tax here and the UK did not, and made it clear it would not, there would be a movement of financial services activity from Dublin to London, and there are 38,000 employed in the financial services industry in Ireland.

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