Sir, – After reading Fintan O'Toole's opinion piece, I felt inclined to have a little rest on the couch as he indicated Ireland has some sort of behavioural problem when it comes to our 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate ("Ireland makes a fetish of corporation tax because it is too scared to be normal", Opinion & Analysis, September 28th).
Fintan O’Toole’s psychoanalysis of Ireland Inc says, “the fetishisation of 12.5 per cent is indeed the result of an earlier repression: the long, slow torment of underdevelopment and mass emigration”.
Freud would be very impressed.
I would suggest we developed a very lucrative corporation tax system, the envy of many countries, thanks to successive governments and the IDA over the last 30 years and we simply do not want to give up our golden goose.
Our 12.5 per cent rate is not the “irreducible sacred marker” of the State’s existence as most multinationals pay far less than 12.5 per cent corporation tax.
It is the various tax strategies within our tax code, which can effectively erode any headline tax rate, that is one of the reasons why Ireland is attractive to foreign multinational companies.
Let’s hope that we don’t give up our golden goose too easily as we sure have a lot of scary bills to pay. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN RODDY,
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.