Madam, - John McManus (Business Opinion, February 9th) queries the "holding company regime" in the Finance Bill. He worries about the sort of business it might attract to the IFSC - a location which now effectively covers anywhere in the Republic of Ireland - and the risk of being dragged "further into the mire" surrounding some recent international business scandals.
It should be remembered that the IFSC's bread and butter is not "complicated tax-based business" as Business Opinion suggests - not that either of those adjectives is pejorative. In the IFSC, Ireland has created an environment where pensions can be administered; insurance and re-insurance sold; capital raised and international cash and treasury management undertaken more efficiently than elsewhere. In the international business environment, the free movement of capital is still an extremely difficult and complicated achievement, but one that is critical to economic growth. Ireland should be proud of its position in furthering this movement.
There is always the risk that a company will seek to abuse such structures, so proper regulation and oversight are central to Ireland's long-term success in the financial services arena. As long as it is maintained, we can minimise the risk of such abuse. The presence in Ireland of the subsidiary of a "problem company" is not by itself an indication of such abuse taking place here.
Nor is the real reason behind the change in our laws to "boost the fee income of a few professional services firms". If that were the case, the IFSC would never have been the job-creation success that it patently is. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN MacHALE, Mount Pleasant Square, Dublin 6.