We have a lowish corporation tax of 12.5% yes paid on company profits, but everything else is very high!
For example out of a ~€39000 salary last year after all taxes i was left with €25000, things get rapidly worse from there if you want to move money from your company to yourself, people can check http://www.deloitte.ie/tc/ for ideas of what income taxes people pay here
As a director one could take a company loan (illegal above certain % but dont think anyone checks) but this would be liable to witholding tax of about 20%
Capital gains is 33% here.
And of course VAT of 23%..
tl.dr: the taxation structure here works great for large corporations who can hire expensive accountants to launder literally billions thru' Ireland to warmer climes BUT for anyone running a normal small business, expect to hand over 20-40% of your earnings
and anything left after you pay income taxes for example, is heavily taxed with loads of stealth taxes (tv license, house tax, soon water tax etc etc) and of course 23% on anything you buy (essentials like food aside, some of these have lower VAT tax rate)