Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have seen documents from the Department of Finance and the then Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation related to the decision taken by the former Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, to raise to 100% the amount of intangible assets multinationals could write off against profits in any given year. The result of this decision was a massive placing onshore of billions of euro of such assets. While the documents to which I refer leave some questions unanswered, they shed some light on the motivations behind a move that is costing the State €650 million a year. At the time, a senior policy adviser in the tax unit of the then Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation warned against the former Minister's proposal, saying he disagreed with it "on reputation grounds" on the basis that it "would reduce the potential minimum effective tax rate from 2.5 per cent to 1.25 per cent, as 1.25 per cent is too low and such a change could backfire." Rather than taking this advice, the former Minister decided to increase the threshold which was under discussion in the paper in question, from 90% to 100%. We know from a letter that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, sent to Deputy Pearse Doherty that the Department of Finance admits that Apple raised these precise changes in 2014 during the passage of the Finance Bill. The Department will not release the minutes of four meetings it had with Apple which was the largest beneficiary of this tax move. Why are the meetings with Apple at which this issue was discussed being kept secret? Will the minutes be published for the purposes of transparency? Was this issue discussed when the Taoiseach had his meeting with Mr. Cook? Will budget 2019 close the gap and make these billions of euro of assets taxable?

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