Corporation tax hike 'number one concern' for international investors

National Treasury Management Agency chief executive Conor O'Kelly said: 'What matters is not what I think, but what investors think. They are watching developments... It is their number one concern at this moment in time.'

Ireland’s prospective move to a 15% corporation tax rate is the issue of “number one concern” to international investors regarding the Irish economy, according to the head of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

Asked about the potential move to a new rate – which would leave behind the rate of 12.5% which has been zealously guarded by successive governments – Conor O’Kelly, the chief executive of the agency, told the Public Accounts Committee he personally doesn’t “really have an opinion” on the matter.