Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I find it extraordinary that there has been an attempt to block a simple request to bring before the joint committee representatives of a number of multinational companies, including Google, Facebook and Apple, which have been accused in a number of quarters internationally of engaging in aggressive tax avoidance, in order that members will be able to ask them questions on the matter. It beggars belief that we could discuss global and multinational tax architecture and its relationship to this State and our role in it without asking some of the key players based in this country to come before the joint committee to express their views on the issue. This does not make sense. We are asking people who are at one remove to give us what is supposedly expert analysis of the issue, rather than questioning those who are at the centre of the issue, namely, the corporations. Nobody knows more about this issue than the multinational companies, although it remains to be seen whether they will provide honest answers.