Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have explained what we are doing. Any inference that I am in any way looking to reduce the value or the impact of changes made to how these organisations were taxed in the past is wrong and inaccurate. My Department and the Revenue Commissioners regularly review the tax code to see if we need to make any changes to either deter avoidance or deal with discrepancies that might lead to difficulties in the future. The Deputy asked me earlier if I could give the House an estimate of a yield. I told the Deputy that I cannot and the reason is that we have no evidence at the moment that this is being used in any way to diminish a yield that the State should currently be receiving. However, we are making this change in case it could create an opportunity in the future that we would not want someone to take advantage of or a problem for the tax code overall.

The second question Deputy Burton put to me concerned who are the shareholders. They could be any of the groups to which she referred. I am not in a position to comment on who are the owners of shares of different organisations that fall under the heading of section 110.

On Deputy Boyd Barrett's point, we have a clear policy difference on this matter. For reasons we have previously debated, I do not believe retrospection would be an improvement within our tax code. Instead it would undermine the way it has operated. This is a principle which should be held firm for individuals, companies and organisations such as these.

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