Seán Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for Finance if he has carried out an assessment of the likely economic impact here of the corporate tax amnesty signed into law by the US President, Mr. George Bush, which may mean that profits generated here by US firms may now be returned to the US; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29869/04]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The American Jobs Creation Act 2004 gives US multinationals a one-off chance to repatriate to the US accumulated profits held outside the US by availing of a special effective corporate tax rate of 5.25%. Non-US profits repatriated to the US are normally taxed at between 35% and 40%. This reduced rate of corporation tax will only be available for a 12 month period.

President Bush recently signed the legislation into law and full details of how it will be interpreted in practice are not yet available. Consequently, it is not yet possible to assess fully the likely economic impact.

I draw the attention of the Deputy to what my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, said in the Dáil on 16 November, namely, that IDA Ireland is not overly concerned that this one-off opportunity to repatriate accumulated profit to the US will affect the level of ongoing US investment in Ireland. However, IDA Ireland and Forfás will undertake a joint review of the legislation.