MINISTER OF State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton has praised Germany’s “constructive” approach to solving the stand-off over Ireland’s corporate tax rate.
Ms Creighton said the “rational and reasonable” talks she held in Berlin yesterday reflected ongoing positive bilateral relations and were at odds with recent “xenophobic” anti-German coverage in some sections of the Irish media.
“I had a good opportunity to put forward our case . . . and I don’t think the tax rate is a red-line issue for Germany,” she said, adding she felt “much empathy” for the Irish position in talks with Eckart von Klaeden, a minister for state close to chancellor Angela Merkel.
Ms Creighton said talking with German officials was about “reiterating ourselves until we make progress” but added she was confident agreement would be reached on a drop in the interest rate on Ireland’s EU-IMF loans. Berlin has so far declined to comment.
“We keep saying to Germany that we know there’s no such thing as a free lunch but there is a price when you consider the huge austerity measures. We just want parity with Greece and Portugal,” she said.
Ms Creighton said the Government shared Germany’s determination to achieve stronger financial regulation in the EU and looked forward to working constructively on this issue.
She said Ireland shared Germany’s opposition to a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB), a European Commission initiative to create a uniform system for calculating corporate tax liability. France backs the proposal. “I think the French position (on tax) is much more trenchant, whereas there is much more understanding on the German side,” said Ms Creighton.
Germany favours a less ambitious common tax base which would allow greater comparison of tax systems. This week the Berlin finance ministry warned the CCCTB system carried a “risk of considerable, sustained risk of tax revenue shortfall”.
Ms Creighton said the concentration on disagreements between Dublin and Berlin had led to pieces directed against Germany in the Irish media.
“I think some of the stuff I’ve seen written about Germany in the last two weeks has, quite frankly, been xenophobic. It’s easy to pick on the German stereotypes, the austere Germans, but it’s off the mark,” she said.
“We cannot blame German for our problems: that’s a simplistic and dangerous debate pushed by a narrow group of commentators. There’s plenty against Greece in the German papers and politicians here don’t like that either. But they understand you cannot always control an irresponsible media and that it’s not always a reflection of what ordinary people think.”