As Fianna Fail spokesman on finance Michael McGrath points out, the IFSC accounts for 7 per cent of GDP, an industry whose contribution to the economy and employment is vital. We asked all registered political parties in the Dail to participate, and five did*: Fine Gael, Labour, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, and Renua Ireland. All provide encouragement for the sector, acknowledging its importance, and there is also discernable, even from the most left leaning parties, a recognition of the disincentive potential of certain tax moves e.g. Sinn Féin’s disavowal here of the Financial Transactions Tax. Most radical of all the parties on the tax front are Renua, whose flat tax proposal is described here by party leader Lucinda Creighton as the latter day equivalent of the 12.5% corporation tax rate. Renua’s proposals on capital gains tax are equally transformative in the sphere of small business, where, as Minister Simon Harris says, there are 200 Irish owned companies included in the roster of 400+ IFS companies.
* (By the time we went to press, TDs from Anti Austerity Alliance/People before Profit parties had not provided a response). In our next issue, and, prior to the election, online, we shall include the views of the Social Democrats, and candidates standing for the upper house, the Senate. |
