Eamon Quinn: Joe Biden's tax plan puts Ireland and the multinationals back in the frame

The sting for Ireland is the US president's proposal to raise the Trump-era minimum tax rate on earnings generated overseas by US companies to 21%.

US president Joe Biden and Taoiseach Micheál Martin during a virtual meeting for St Patrick's Day. Mr Biden's new plan could upend the global tax regime that has anchored Irish prosperity since the late 1980s. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

In the thick of a global pandemic, any initiative to overhaul global tax will likely leave most people cold. 

Ireland stumbled across its 12.5% corporation tax regime almost three decades ago and accidentally unlocked an almost magical formula to attract thousands of US multinational jobs and billions of their tax dollars to these shores.