Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the clarification that not just the Revenue Commissioners but the Minister's Department will carry out a review. I presume we will return to this issue again and again. There are serious issues. I tabled a parliamentary question on this and the Minister has mentioned again that where there are double taxation treaties, there would be no tax liability. I seriously question that. Does that mean that the Royal Bank of Scotland operated here on a tax-free basis? Does that mean any foreign bank can lend into the State tax-free? I doubt that is the case. However, when a company sets up a non-bank lender which uses section 110 of our tax code, it then becomes tax-free.

There are serious lending impediments to lending for firms not located in this jurisdiction, including transfer issues, currency costs, having personnel in the country and so on. I want a report. The Minister has given no commitment to come back with any type of assessment. He gave a commitment to ask the Revenue and his officials to apprise him of the issue and determine whether there are any problems, but there is nothing in terms of transparency.

The Minister has not committed to bringing forward any type of report. He is not committed to providing any information to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach or the Committee on Budgetary Oversight or parliamentarians in the House which would better inform us of this issue, if so required, or reassure us that there are no issues. My amendment is an attempt to deal with the fact that there are non-bank lenders in the State which are branches of international banks making millions in profit by using a section unique to our tax code, that is, section 110, and paying only €250 in tax.

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