Corporation tax take not accidental

Sir, – I am certain that successive boards of the IDA would profoundly disagree with what Fintan O’Toole says in his article “Ireland may soon be expelled naked from the fiscal Garden of Eden” (Opinion & Analysis, November 26th), particularly when he claims the corporation tax take “has an air of the accidental about it”, and “we’re not dealing with a situation the State created by careful planning”.

Under policies devised in the early 1980s by Michael Killeen as chief executive of the IDA, working with Des O’Malley, who was then minister for industry and commerce, the IDA procured inward investment by med-tech, pharmacy and technology companies, which would generate both significant employment and corporate taxes.

Over 40 years of the most successful international inward investment strategy count as “careful planning”, and ought to satisfy even Fintan O’Toole’s lofty expectations. – Yours, etc,

BARRY LYONS,