Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

Deputy Higgins referred to a number of high level ideological and economic issues. Previous speakers also referred to what austerity is doing to domestic demand and its impact on the businesses we all represent. Let us be clear about it, Irish business people and the organisations which represent them do not have an austerity fetish. There is no obsession with pursuing austerity for the sake of doing so. Five years ago, the State was in great peril. There is no escape from that reality. At that stage, businesses were struggling to maintain credibility on international markets and raise finance of any sort. They were fighting for their very survival. From both a business and sovereign point of view, we had to stabilise the State. I think we have done that and it was essential that we did so for the sake of employment, business and our future economic sovereignty. There is no question that the adjustments we had to make were essential. Those adjustments hurt businesses. We have discussed this matter in the offices of IBEC, particularly in the context of the impact contractionary budgets have had on our members, their businesses and the people they employ.

When we say what we think needs to be done in order to fix the public finances, we do not say it lightly or in ignorance of its likely impact on the domestic economy and the many hundreds of thousands of households that will be affected. However, we see the suggestions we are making as being essential in terms of regaining our economic sovereignty, restoring economic stability, putting in place a platform to allow businesses to begin to recover and people to return to work and, hopefully, generating the activity and revenue we require in order to fund our public services in future years. That is the universal sense of the business community we represent in respect of this matter. It was not something they did out of an ideological desire. They did it out of necessity in order to stabilise our economy.

On the issue of companies hoarding profits and the debate on corporation tax, we operate in a very competitive international business environment. Businesses operating out of Ireland are doing the best they can to win projects and bring employment into the State. We do not operate in a bubble and we cannot afford to take an ideological view that would end up being counterproductive in terms of bringing investment and employment into the State. There are certain things that will be considered at international level in the context of business taxation and the degree to which the structures relating thereto have kept pace with the evolution of technologies and the structures employed by global businesses. The reality is that, at present, Ireland raises a great deal of money from corporation tax. In fact, it raises relatively more than most other states from this tax. This generates much employment because we have an offering that works for our economy and for employment creation. I am of the view that we would turn our backs on the latter at our peril. Those are the main comments I wish to make.