There is also a difference between Ireland and many other places that used low corporation tax as an economic development strategy (e.g. Hong Kong, Estonia, Singapore, Netherlands, Luxembourg, some Swiss cantons and Israel). They treated the resulting inflow of corporate investment a bit like an oil boom (lucrative but inevitably temporary) and used the proceeds to build up a world class infrastructure that would keep them economically attractive after corporation tax reform. By contrast, in Ireland successive governments were betting on Ireland's corporate tax regime going on forever while squandering much of the proceeds, leaving the country in a much more serious long term position than many politicians are willing to admit.
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