Duke of Marmalade
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This is a kind of a side bar to the Lisbon Treaty debate. Apologies in advance for its tedium but I am on holiday and the weather is awful.
Ireland's low CT rate is the be all and end all of the Celtic Tiger (remember her)
Ireland is at the periphery of Europe and has very few natural advantages, a fishing coastline and a convenient stop-over for US troops are the only two that spring to mind. As a result Ireland has been the poor man of Europe from the famine up to the early 1990s. What has been the dominant differentiating feature of the last 15 years?
Trying to minimise the importance of the CT rate, we have sought for other more noble reasons. Like we are highly educated. Such arrogance, and anyway are we really better educated now than 20 years ago? Do we really think Intel would chose Leixlip over Luton if Irish CT was 30% and UK CT was 12.5%.
We speak the Queen's English. A bit more substance to this one, but would Intel chose Leixlip over Lyon if Irish CT was 34% and French CT was 12.5%. Again we didn't learn to speak English in the last 15 years.
The EU is oft cited as a factor in raising the Tiger but we were in the EU for the dark years of the 70s and 80s. The EU factor needed the catalyst of the low CT rate to really bloom.
Thank you both Charlies for Ireland's greatest artificial asset which has more than offset our deficiency in natural assets.
Let this penny drop and I leave you with two corollaries.
1) We do not want Barack Obama as president of the US. In recessionary America CT piracy will be a soft target for any Democrat and it will not matter a jot to BO that he will be plunging Ireland back 30 years. This is the Brendan Keenan argument.
2) To be sure we are not guaranteed this concession in Europe and there are already those rumbling against it. Rejection of Lisbon would be gris to their mill. In short, Lisbon is the best prospect for the longevity of our favourable CT status and this is an overwhelming reason for voting Yes. Now do you understand why Bertie says voting for the status quo would be a disaster for Ireland?
Ireland's low CT rate is the be all and end all of the Celtic Tiger (remember her)
Ireland is at the periphery of Europe and has very few natural advantages, a fishing coastline and a convenient stop-over for US troops are the only two that spring to mind. As a result Ireland has been the poor man of Europe from the famine up to the early 1990s. What has been the dominant differentiating feature of the last 15 years?
Trying to minimise the importance of the CT rate, we have sought for other more noble reasons. Like we are highly educated. Such arrogance, and anyway are we really better educated now than 20 years ago? Do we really think Intel would chose Leixlip over Luton if Irish CT was 30% and UK CT was 12.5%.
We speak the Queen's English. A bit more substance to this one, but would Intel chose Leixlip over Lyon if Irish CT was 34% and French CT was 12.5%. Again we didn't learn to speak English in the last 15 years.
The EU is oft cited as a factor in raising the Tiger but we were in the EU for the dark years of the 70s and 80s. The EU factor needed the catalyst of the low CT rate to really bloom.
Thank you both Charlies for Ireland's greatest artificial asset which has more than offset our deficiency in natural assets.
Let this penny drop and I leave you with two corollaries.
1) We do not want Barack Obama as president of the US. In recessionary America CT piracy will be a soft target for any Democrat and it will not matter a jot to BO that he will be plunging Ireland back 30 years. This is the Brendan Keenan argument.
2) To be sure we are not guaranteed this concession in Europe and there are already those rumbling against it. Rejection of Lisbon would be gris to their mill. In short, Lisbon is the best prospect for the longevity of our favourable CT status and this is an overwhelming reason for voting Yes. Now do you understand why Bertie says voting for the status quo would be a disaster for Ireland?