Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Saint-Amans may have gathered from quite a few of the questioners that there is a consensus in this country that we are not a tax haven and he has given some comfort to that consensus by suggesting that we are not a tax haven. The definition of "tax haven" Mr. Saint-Amans is using, which is current, is meaningless. It is just another thing the multinationals have spread around. The phrase "double Irish" makes it clear that the tax and legal situation in this country is such that multinationals can exploit it to facilitate enormous tax avoidance. From a moral point of view and from the point of view of the ordinary lay citizen, particularly in this country where people are being crucified with taxes, austerity and cuts, that makes us in any meaningful sense a tax haven because we are facilitating aggressive, large-scale tax avoidance by some of the wealthiest corporations in the world.