Ireland will not join any legal challenge to transaction tax

Ireland will not join Britain and Sweden in any legal challenge to a tax on financial transactions being proposed by 10 EU countries in what will be the first enhanced cooperation agreement on taxation among member states.

However, Ireland will not join the 10 that say they will gradually impose the so-called Robin Hood tax that from the beginning of 2016 will see a tax on trading shares and some derivatives.

The agreement — after more than a year of negotiations — looked like falling apart as the countries battled to reach a compromise on a proposal originally put forward by the European Commission three years ago.