WORKING PAPER - CRISIS RECOVERY IN A COUNTRY WITH A HIGH PRESENCE OF FOREIGN

Retained earnings of re-domiciled PLCs increase the value of the firm“… [but] are treated as an outflow in the current account of the balance of payments (as reinvested earnings)” (FitzGerald 2015: 10). [...] EUR/IEP 50 40 30 20 10 0 -10 Net exports to the rest of the world -20 Net primary income from the rest of the world -30 Net current transfers from the rest of the world Current account position -40 Source: AMECO, data download Sep. [...] After the mid-1980s, GPD per head of population increased remarkably, allowing Ireland to catch-up to EU-15 levels of GDP per head of population at the end of the 1990s and even to surpass these levels in the 2000s (see table 2). [...] Honohan and Walsh discuss as “catalytic effects” for the strong catch-up in growth from the mid- 1980s onward the combination of “…the flow of EU structural funds, the devaluations of 1986 and 1993, and the revitalized promotion of tourism and inward FDI (including offshore financial services)” (Honohan/Walsh 2002: 50). [...] Therefore, it is surprising that the government seems to be willing to continue to compete for foreign owned companies by low corporate taxation rates, as a series of publications of the Department of Finance (2014) seems to indicate as well as the discussion of having to accept tax payments of Apple (CNBC 11 Sep.