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

I understand that argument and Professor Barry outlined it clearly. In fairness, he was very objective but he did make one moral value judgment when he stated while it may make sense for larger economies to have higher corporate tax rates, it does not make sense for smaller economies to have them. That matter is very much open to question and debate. I wish to put a direct question to Professor Barry. I was the first person to reveal - via replies I received to parliamentary questions I tabled approximately one year ago - startling facts about how little effective corporate tax is being paid by corporations in this country. The figures contained in the replies to which I refer and which emanated from the Department of Finance indicate that €70 billion was made in pre-tax profits by the corporations and that - following the various deductions, the application of reliefs, etc. - €4 billion was paid in tax. This means that approximately 6.2% was paid in corporation tax. The latter is the effective rate - not 11.1% or 12.5% - and it happens to coincide with EU Commission figures which indicate that our implicit rate of corporation tax is 6.8%.

Notwithstanding the browbeating I received for revealing this information and references to the World Bank's measurement for effective rates which indicates a rate of 11.1% for Ireland, has Professor Barry not effectively admitted that I was right? Is it not the case that the real effective rate - and not one based on that which might apply to a mythical medium-sized company that produces ceramics - in terms of the level of profits made and how much tax paid is more in the region of 6% to 7%? Is this not borne out by Department of Finance and EUROSTAT figures and by Professor Barry's friend, Professor Devereux, in the second column which, I presume, involves a different calculation?