[soneil]

The problem is, no-one's offered a sane alternative.

The top employment sectors in Ireland are Food&Drink, Pharma, and Tech. The latter two of those are massively dominated by multinationals. Combine that with multinationals contributing the bulk of corporate taxes, and we simply can't afford to scare them away. Without these MNCs, Ireland's economy would be basically beef, beer, and American tourists. There simply isn't enough native industry to make up the short-fall (which is the part I think should actually be addressed, rather than the symptoms).

(And away they will - Ireland is not the lowest corporate tax rate in the EU. Liechtenstein and Cyprus have the same rate, and 3 more states have a lower rate.)

I do understand the desire for a level playing field. It's a noble goal. But we're basically being told "We'd like you to drive your economy back to the 1950s, because France feels it'd be more fair". It's not a particularly enticing proposal - all stick and no carrot.

Ironically, they're championing our post-bailout growth as a success, while they retroactively make the mechanisms behind it illegal.