Sinn Féin's finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has slammed Irish tax laws that allow foreign-owned "vulture funds" to avoid tax liability.
The Donegal TD is calling on the Government to change legislation that ensures non-resident property funds are exempt from contributing to the Exchequer.
Doherty singled out the Cedar Real Estate Investments Plc that receives €2.65 million annually in rent for leasing office space to the Central Bank. It pays no tax on this income.
Cedar is own by Starwood Property Trust Inc, an American vulture fund that is not resident in Ireland.
The Sinn Féin TD said:
“At a time when our ordinary families and squeezed with a cost-of-living crisis and public services are under-resourced, these vulture funds are paying little or no tax, and now we learn the State is paying millions to at least one of them.
“Even more infuriating is that it is the very body that is tasked with regulating these funds, the Central Bank, that is paying them. The State’s policy on vulture funds is going from scandal to farce.
“Minister Noonan needs to act urgently to amend the tax designation of non-resident property funds in the interests of fairness and the public purse.”