IRELAND’S RATE of corporation tax is “absolutely fundamental” to the State’s economic model and any attempt to have it increased would be “misguided”, newly appointed Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton has said.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin yesterday at his first official engagement, the Minister said the 12.5 per cent tax rate was a key element in promoting enterprise in Ireland and it would be “short-sighted” to believe otherwise.
“The challenge that Europe faces at the moment is that it needs to see countries like Ireland trade their way out of these difficulties and that has to be [based on] an export-led model.
“Everyone recognises this: the Irish economy is not going to have a consumer-led recovery, it’s going to have to be an export-led recovery. The idea that, when Europe is looking to Ireland to develop an export-led recovery, they would seek to remove one of the most important pillars of our policy is just misguided, and Ireland will have to defend this absolutely rigorously.
“This is a very important element of our approach to the development of enterprise in a peripheral location. It is short-sighted to think that a strong export-led recovery could be developed on the basis of diluting that commitment.”
Mr Bruton said Taoiseach Enda Kenny had “made our position absolutely clear” but this was not based on a “dog-in-the-manger, selfish attitude”. The solution to current economic difficulties would be “founded on a recovery driven by enterprise”, with companies “winning new markets on the basis of all of what’s attractive about investing in Ireland”.
The Government accepted that Ireland’s European partners needed to see a “balanced package” emerge from the current negotiations. “Ireland has signed up to a lot of the fiscal discipline proposals that have been advocated. We have a very detailed set of improvements in competitiveness that the Government is committed to implement.”
Mr Bruton said the Government accepted there would be “give and take”, but added: “What Ireland will be saying very trenchantly is that it is not in the mutual interest of Europe to see a country, that is struggling to achieve the sort of recovery that is necessary, handicapped by decisions that are imposed by those who perhaps aren’t sufficiently aware of the challenges.”
The Minister was speaking at a press briefing on a new €12 million investment in Altobridge Ltd, a Tralee-based technology firm chaired by former tánaiste Dick Spring.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet holds its regular weekly meeting this morning where the issues under consideration are expected to include undertakings on job creation in the programme for government.
The joint Fine Gael-Labour programme pledges that within the first 100 days of the new administration, resources will be made available for a jobs fund to finance an additional 15,000 places in training, work experience and educational opportunities for those out of work.
