North business tax cut ‘not a threat’

Belfast: A potential cut in the business tax rate in the North to the level in the Republic is not a threat to the Irish economy, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has insisted.

Stormont ministers are lobbying the British Treasury for the power to set their own corporation tax in a bid to kick-start the region’s private sector.

On his first official visit to meet Executive counterparts in Belfast, Mr Gilmore said a tax cut in the North should be viewed as an opportunity for the whole island.

“We don’t see that as a threat at all,” he said.

“I think the challenge for both of us is to work together to grow the economy north and south; that certainly is something that is very much on the minds of the Irish Government and it’s something that we intend to work co-operatively on with the first minister, deputy first minister and with the Executive here.”