Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for the recommendation. This work has been done very recently. In April 2014, the Department of Finance published a technical paper on effective rates of corporation tax in Ireland. The paper was jointly written by the Department of Finance and Mr. Seamus Coffey of UCC to ensure that the work was as objective as possible. The paper contained a comprehensive analysis of the issue of effective rates of corporation tax paid and it was prepared in order to provide clarity around the seemingly conflicting figures that are frequently quoted. It is an excellent resource for those seeking to understand what can be a complex technical issue. I will endeavour to make sure copies of the paper are made available.

In the interest of brevity, the paper found that the effective rates of corporation tax, as measured according to statistics from those two sources, are reasonably close to the headline rate of 12.5% and that the difference is mainly accounted for by double taxation relief and a small number of other reliefs including the research and development tax credit. The paper was based upon the analysis of effective rates across a ten-year period and, therefore, does not need to be re-examined on an annual basis. On the basis of that extensive analysis, the Department is comfortable that companies in Ireland are paying the appropriate rate of corporate tax on profits generated by those companies in Ireland. It is important to make that detailed reported available to Senators and if they would like to follow up with it at a later stage in the course of next year we can discuss it then.