MOS Costello commitment to tax transparency

Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello, T.D., today reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to promoting tax transparency internationally. Speaking after joining the Christian Aid Tax Bus, which is currently touring Ireland to raise awareness of the effects of taxation policies and capital flight on poor countries, the Minister said:

“Irish Aid plays a vital role in helping to meet the needs of people in some of the poorest parts of the world. However, to achieve a sustainable solution to poverty, developing countries need to generate their own revenues.

We are committed to helping them to do so, for example through the partnership between the Revenue Commissioners and their counterparts in Rwanda, and through our support for African tax authorities more broadly. 

The recent public consultations for the review of the White Paper on Irish Aid highlighted the importance of the international community acting to combat illicit financial flows and capital flight which is depriving developing countries of much-needed resources. This is being highlighted here again today by the Tax Bus visit to Dublin.

We will continue to work at all levels, through the United Nations, the European Union and the OECD in particular, in addressing these important issues relating to taxation and development.

For example, the current proposals for a revision of the EU Transparency and Accounting Directives aim among other things to improve transparency among EU multinational companies involved in extractive and logging industries in developing countries. We are working with the Department for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in advancing these proposals at the EU level and hope that they will be finalised over the coming months.”

Press Office

27 September 2012