Ms Nessa Ní Chasaide:

In the tax transparency argument, we are arguing that far more should be demanded of companies operating out of Ireland in terms of disclosing information on profits made and taxes paid. This is of clear concern to us in the case of multinational companies which have subsidiaries all around the world, including many in Ireland. That is a matter of particular concern. However, that is not to say we should not have this kind of country-by-country reporting for all companies in Ireland.

To build on what Ms O'Neill stated, there is a reason Ireland is being targeted in this debate, which adds to the urgency with regard to why the Government should be much more proactive on these tax transparency measures. It is because we often do not know what tax multinational companies are paying. The Apple case was a shocking one, whereby one part of the Apple conglomerate was paying an extremely low rate of tax and it was not clear to the people of Ireland how that agreement had come about.

Deputy Durkan is quite correct in pointing out it is not only Ireland's responsibility. This is a multilateral issue. There is a race to the bottom on tax. Where Ireland is involved in particular schemes, such as the "double Irish" or the "Dutch sandwich", which have been discussed a lot in the media, it is the interplay between a range of jurisdictions that has come under question, and rightly so.