Labour Senator calls for tax debate

Labour Party Senator Alex White is calling for a full debate on the issue of tax.

The Department of Finance moved last night to send a message to the multinational community to say that there will be no increase in the corporation tax rate.

The move came as a result of comments made by the EU Economics Commissioner Oli Rehn who said the Government could not afford to exclude any tax policy changes if we want to get our finances back on track.

Ireland's low corporation tax rate of 12.5% is seen as key to attracting foreign investment.

However, Mr White said nothing should be ruled out at this stage.

Mr White said: "We cannot exclude any discussion on the issue of tax. I understand last night that the Government moved quickly on the issue of corporation tax.

"But the dufficulty is if we spend the next few weeks ticking off things that we are not going to do, we will never have a real debate on what we are going to do."