Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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142. To ask the Minister for Finance the way in which Ireland's recovery and resilience plan will deal with the outstanding country specific recommendations including, specifically, the recommendations to step up action to address features of the tax system that facilitate aggressive tax planning, including on outbound payments and to broaden the tax base. [8056/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on the Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation was reached in December. The European Parliament and the Council are now completing the steps to formally adopt the Regulation, which is expected to enter into force next week.

The Regulation will stipulate that Member States must submit a National Recovery and Resilience Facility to the Commission by the deadline of 30^thApril. These plans will set out the package of reforms and investments that will be financed by the Member States’ allocation (grants and potentially, loans) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

The reforms and investments included in the Plan must seek to address challenges identified in the relevant Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) received in 2019 and 2020, which arise as part of the European Semester process.

I can confirm that work is underway within my Department in respect to the specific recommendations on stepping up action to address features of the tax system that facilitate aggressive tax planning, including on outbound payments and to broaden the tax base.

In this context, I published an Update to Ireland Corporation Tax Roadmap In January which, as well as outlining considerable progress to date, sets out the next steps I will be taking to reform Ireland's corporation tax code. Commitments 6 and 7 of the Update to the Roadmap commit to considering actions that may be needed in respect of outbound payments and specifically to explore the issues related to outbound payments from Ireland and withholding taxes. This process will include an examination of issues raised by the EU in recent years in the European Semester Process and in the Country Specific Recommendations given to Ireland.

It is my intention to hold a public consultation in the coming months on outbound payments to seek the input of stakeholders and interested parties. I encourage anyone with an interest in this area to engage with the process and make a submission to the public consultation, which will be announced on my Department’s website in due course.

Options to broaden the tax base will be assessed as part of the annual Tax Strategy Group process which I will consider in the context of the annual budget.