Taoiseach: No change to 12.5% corporation tax rate
People before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett is one of several TDs who have suggested that the headline or effective rate should be increased so that companies pay more tax.
But the Taoiseach, speaking on the issue in the Dáil yesterday ahead of today’s budget, said there would be no movement on corporation tax.
“It is 12.5% and the effective rate is 11.9%… As we have pointed out at European level, there will not be any change in Ireland’s corporate tax rate and we do not have any intention of moving away from it.”
Mr Kenny said he had made the same point during visits to the US to reassure American multinationals which have bases in Ireland.
Separately on Irish-American matters, Mr Kenny said that the Government is considering ways of marking the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy’s visit to Ireland.
“I recall how, while I was a young lad, President Kennedy came here in 1963 and spoke from this spot… I wrote to his daughter just last week about the celebrations that will take place in Wexford, to which I have committed my involvement. A number of the Kennedy family are travelling for that.
“When I had the opportunity to speak at the Kennedy centre in Boston, I said that perhaps we should look at doing something next year, but in a forward thinking and forward looking way, on the 50th anniversary of the president’s (visit) to Ireland, which was the last before the great tragedy of his assassination.”
Mr Kenny also expressed his wish that US president Barack Obama would return to Ireland a second time and, if possible, address the Houses of the Oireachtas.
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