Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore raised the prospect of a bilateral visa arrangement between Ireland and the US during a meeting with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Washington on Friday. Mr Gilmore, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in the new Irish government, has pledged to pursue the option of an E3 visa for Ireland.
Australia is currently the only country with the specialty work visa in place, but Irish-American immigration reform lobbyists are seeking to have it extended to Ireland. They made their case to Minister Gilmore during a meeting in New York last week. The Labour Party leader acknowledged that comprehensive immigration reform in the US is “on the back-burner” for now, but said he intended to deal with other issues affecting
“First of all the people who have been here for quite some time, many of whom would qualify for a visa but are not able to access that because they have to go back home, and are not sure if they get back in. That has to be addressed,” he he told me at meeting in the Irish consulate on Wednesday last. “Secondly, there is the issue of pursuing the idea of the E3 visa. That’s something that we intend to do and we will work with the Irish American organizations in progressing that.”
Mr Gilmore’s visit to New York included meetings with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor Andrew Cuomo and City Council speaker Christine Quinn. Mr Gilmore reviewed the St Patrick’s Day parade, and attended an event organized by Enterprise Ireland in which Irish high-tech companies met with leading IT companies in the US. He also addressed a meeting of the Ireland-US Council, and held talks with leading Irish-American business networks and figures.
He was keen to reassure US investors that Ireland’s corporate tax rate would remain unchanged at 12.5%. “I want to be absolutely clear on this,” he said, “The Irish government is determined to retain our 12.5% corporate tax rate. Certainty about our corporate tax rate is very important to business, companies that are considering investing in Ireland and the new government is determined that we will retain that.
He said he had not been surprised that the issue had been raised by France and Germany at recent EU talks, but said President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel were simply “responding to their own domestic political environment”. He said he was confident Ireland could withstand the strong Franco-German pressure on the issue, despite its desire to achieve a better deal on the EU/IMF bailout.
“I think it’s important we don’t see the renegotiation as an exercise in conflict between ourselves and other member states. The renegotiation of the package is about ensuring that it works, that the Irish economy is enabled to recover. That’s obviously good for Ireland, but it’s also good for the rest of the European Union and Eurozone in particular.” Mr Gilmore said it was “an exercise in working together” in the Eurozone’s collective interest and not one that necessitated confrontation.
On the issue of a consolidated tax base being proposed by the European Commission, Mr Gilmore said the proposals were up for discussion but it was “very early days”. The idea of a consolidated tax base is being resisted by Ireland, amid fears that it would lead to a change to our corporation tax through the back door.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland has backed the Irish government’s opposition to the consolidated tax base proposed by Brussels. There are almost 100,000 people employed in Ireland today directly by over 600 US firms, and they are worth around €3bn to the Exchequer.
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