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

I do not think the Minister is a fool. However, the Government and the Minister have hidden the truth about the complicity of the Irish tax system in aggressive tax avoidance by major multinationals. There can be no doubt about that. A two-tiered approach to a taxation liability was underlying this. In general, in the tax code, if a company was incorporated here it was liable to tax here. However, that was not the case for these multinationals. We allowed the situation to persist and pretended there was nothing we could do about it. That is dishonest. It is a dishonesty which flowed from the dogmatic and obsessive commitment of this Government, the main Opposition party and much of the political establishment in this country to doing whatever the multinationals want. They were afraid to challenge them in any way for fear they might run away. This cosy arrangement with the multinationals has persisted for quite a number of years. It was finally challenged following the election of people to the Dáil who were willing to question it and we have now discovered the truth. That put pressure on the Government to change things. The problem is that the multinationals then get six years to find another way around paying tax. This is completely unacceptable and extraordinary.

Many signals have been sent and assurances made. That is how I read some of the comments made in the last couple of weeks on foot of the announcement about the abolition of the double Irish. These were reassuring sounds from the Government to the multinationals. They are not to worry as they will not have to pay any more. They will have six years to work out how to deal with it and, in any event, the Government will work on a knowledge box on which the multinationals will have an input to ensure it does not hurt their interests. It gives another meaning to the term "double Irish". It is one law for the super wealthy multinationals and it is another law for the ordinary tax payer.