Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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39. To ask the Minister for Finance in the context of the budget 2017 process, if he intends to take action to tackle corporate tax loopholes and address the very low effective tax rate being paid by many large corporations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17503/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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It is important to recognise that companies in Ireland pay an effective corporate tax rate that is very close to the 12.5% headline rate.  In 2014 my Department published a comprehensive Technical Paper on Effective rates of Corporation Tax in Ireland.  The Paper concludes that, using the most appropriate calculation methods, the effective corporate tax rate paid in Ireland has averaged between 10.7% and 10.9% since 2003.

However, I recognise that mismatches between countries and out of date international tax rules have resulted in companies paying lower rates of tax globally.  In this light, work on tackling corporate tax loopholes and aggressive tax planning has been a key priority for Governments around the world in recent years.  Ireland has been actively involved in and supportive of this work.  Ireland fully supported the OECD BEPS project and has been at the forefront of implementing the BEPS recommendations.  We were one of the first countries in the world to introduce Country by Country Reporting to tax authorities as recommend by the BEPS project. Ireland is also heavily involved in work to implement the remaining BEPS recommendations by way of a Multilateral Instrument that will update global tax treaties to ensure they are fully in line with agreed international best practice.  This instrument is expected to be open for signature by countries by the end of 2016.

At the ECOFIN meeting last week I expressed my strong support for the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive which seeks to implement a number of the BEPS recommendations within the EU.  That Directive has now reached political agreement and work will now focus on implementing the measures contained in the Directive.