FDI model must change - economist

Friends First economist Jim Power said today a recent report suggested the number of jobs created in Ireland due to foreign direct…

Friends First economist Jim Power said today a recent report suggested the number of jobs created in Ireland due to foreign direct investment (FDI) had fallen 40 per cent in 2007.

Mr Power said Ireland's FDI model was coming under increasing pressure from emerging economies and falling domestic competitiveness.

He added that moves from the European Commission to harmonise corporation tax rates would further undermine Ireland's FDI model.

"The European Commission believes that the only systematic way to address the underlying tax obstacles which exist for companies operating in more than one member state in the Internal Market is to provide companies with a consolidated tax base (CCTB) for their EU-wide activities.

READ MORE

"A CCTB would seriously curtail a country's ability to have an autonomous tax policy and would remove significant competitive advantages from economies such as Ireland, who have used a competitive corporate tax rate as a sweetener for multinationals to locate here," he said.

He added that the operating costs for businesses have gone up very significantly with wage, fuel, transport, electricity and waste costs all increasing.