Hi °C | Lo °C On August 8th 2012 I read with interest your leading article, "Tax plan is only option on the table", and Irwin Armstrong's letter attacking the failure of Sammy Wilson to provide a detailed argument in relation to the debate.
Whilst the finance minister might fail to provide any meaningful argument it would be a mistake to think there are no alternatives to reducing corporation tax.
The idea of providing breaks to multinational companies in the form of lower corporation tax might seem like a good idea in the short term, but it by no means provides a sustained solution to the problems that Northern Ireland is currently facing.
There are analyses that can show the Irish Government has, in some instances, seen less than 3% of tax as a consequence of their policy.
Yet we are being told that by copying this policy Northern Ireland will be saved.
It is a simple fact that some multinational companies located their headquarters in Dublin, used these bases to avoid taxes, and in some instances employed as little as 150 people.
There is a real risk that all you are effectively arguing for is a way for multinational companies to avoid paying their way in the world.
The Northern Ireland Assembly might start by asking the right questions about Northern Ireland's economy and investing in detailed social and economic research by engaging local academics in a sustained discourse on the subject.
One of these might be to find out why, for example, small and medium farms are currently in decline?
Why have companies that existed for generations in Northern Ireland closed?
Why have new companies flourished?
BARRY GIBSON
Sheffield
