Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, Mr. Brian Purcell, the new president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, spoke passionately about the unfair tax treatment of Irish entrepreneurs and said that they would be better off starting up businesses in the UK, Northern Ireland or the US. He called for significant amendments to the tax system to improve the incentives for Irish entrepreneurs to take the risks necessary to set up and grow businesses. He claimed that many Irish budding entrepreneurs were already voting with their feet. We praised the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation last night for the reduction in unemployment. However, according to EUROSTAT, 21.5% of young people are still unemployed.This is very serious. It is a serious matter for a country and I would like to draw attention to it. Last night, the Minister did not really understand the point I was trying to make. I said that indigenous small and medium-sized Irish companies need to have parity with multinationals. At present, the multinationals only want to be in the large urban areas where there is major infrastructure, etc. Small and medium-sized indigenous industries can start anywhere in Ireland.

The Minister for Finance talks about this great country and how it is going to be a great country in which to do business. Mr. Purcell pointed out that despite commitments from the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach to introduce tax parity, self-employed people in Ireland continue to be discriminated against in terms of PRSI and USC rates and tax credits. The impact of this is at the lower end of the earning scale where the self-employed taxpayer pays 4.4 times as much tax as an employee on the same income.