Hope for Ireland as tax harmonisation plans left off agenda

IRELAND’S desperate bid to save its rock bottom corporation tax being blasted out of existence by the Franco-German alliance received a glimmer of hope last night at the euro crisis summit.

Tax harmonisation plans were noticeably absent from the rescue plan put forward by the EU’s top officials, as Enda Kenny again pledged not to surrender the 12.5% rate.

The incentive to entice companies to Ireland had looked doomed after a joint communique from Paris and Berlin explicitly called for a tax consolidation measures as a price for saving the eurozone.