Would the palaver not be resolved if Government said to EFT providers, okay we'll reduce/amend the tax if you lads sort out the taxation for clients to ensure that there's no self-assessment and avoidance, and it's really up to yourselves if you want to charge clients for that?
My guess is no, low cost brokers would probably prefer to stop allowing Irish PPS numbers access to ETF funds than handle the tax, that's a zero cost solution to that request from government.
But the avoidance issue can't be understated, for Revenue to enforce this they need to take the information they get from brokers, note it's an ETF, then wait around 10 years to see first if the ETF is in profit, if it's been sold, if the owner hasn't moved to another country, if the owner is still alive, if the owner hasn't paid tax, if Ireland has dumped deemed disposal, and then issue a demand.
For a share CGT gain the broker will tell them about the sale, the bank will tell them about the lodgment. In terms of enforcement there's a night and day difference between an easily tracked disposal and a notional one. Eventually there will be a real disposal - but will that happen in Ireland - will it be declared - will it be declared as CGT instead of exit tax and let Revenue see if they spot the error.
I think Revenue could be the ones who get this changed - maybe they've not realised it but they need a simpler scheme - what they have is a scheme based on wishful thinking - and revenue aren't known for that (note how they ditched self declared ESPP this year). Or maybe they stop allowing ETF purchases outside of life companies?