Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have no problem with the idea of corporate Ireland giving 1%. I like it. The fundamental problem I have with this, however, is that it is like incentivising. There are tax exiles who made their money in Ireland and this gives them an additional day here for what would be a very modest sum of money out of their incomes. They are back in Ireland making more money on their investments. There is a lot wrong with our tax code and there was greed throughout the boom. A lot of the people who made money then were extremely greedy and this is probably why we did not see that giving. I would like to encourage giving. The 1% proposal is good and corporate Ireland should be encouraged to give that. The element of Mr. Flannery’s proposal with which I take issue is that of the 40 or 50 individuals he mentioned there are greedy people who are tax exiles, having made their money in Ireland and this would give them a get-out-of-jail card, even if only for one or two days, for what to them is probably a modest sum of money. Mr. Flannery knows the areas I represent where €36,000 would mean a lot to a community centre but we must be extremely careful of the message that this Government sends out. While I fully support Mr. Flannery, a tax exile has moved tax residency out of the country and we should be extremely harsh about anything that would give that person additional days in this country.

I fully support the other part of Mr. Flannery’s proposal but this element is incentivising people to be tax exiles in the first place. I know this applies to only 40 or 50 individuals. My colleagues here would probably be able to name them. If that was on the front page of a newspaper some citizens would be rightly outraged that we are allowing these people to come back into the country for additional days for what would be to them the paltry amount of €36,000 odd a day.