Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin was supportive, which I welcome, and Deputy Boyd Barrett was supportive-ish, in his own words, which was fine. Let us remember where the modified nexus for knowledge development boxes came from. It did not come from this Government, from the Department of Finance or from the Minister, Deputy Noonan. The modified nexus came from the OECD BEPS process, which recognised that while there is benefit in having boxes that enable and incentivise research and development, investment and growth, it is important that those boxes do not allow or facilitate aggressive tax planning. The modified nexus is exactly what we have applied to our knowledge development box, which means that as we sit here today in this committee room, Ireland is the only country that has a knowledge development box that is compliant with the OECD modified nexus, which was put in place to reduce aggressive tax planning. We just need to see this debate in that context. This was an important measure put in place to combat aggressive tax planning.

Whether we like it or not, research and development is happening. Every day, companies in Ireland and around the globe are using the brains of our brightest to develop new products, new ways of doing things and novel inventions to make the lives of our citizens better. We have a choice: do we want that research and development to happen, in terms of jobs and investment in this country, or do we want Irish companies who wish to engage in research and development feeling they need to leave and move to another jurisdiction that is more supportive of incentivising that research and development, and foreign direct investment and multinational company members sitting in boardrooms around the globe today deciding they are not going to Ireland but to another jurisdiction? I know my position on this and I know the Government's position. We want to make sure we have a competitive but transparent regime in place to attract jobs and investment in terms of innovation, research, patents and copyright. As has always been the industrial policy of this country through successive Governments, we want that to be based on substance and real jobs. That is why we are doing this.

I am still confused about the difficulty with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Employment engaging with multinationals. Obviously we are going to talk to businesses to see what we are doing well in this country that is making them likely to invest more in the country. We had a public consultation process and there has been active engagement with stakeholders. Those stakeholders included a range of NGOs over the course of 2015. There was also a public consultation in 2015. There were nearly 40 written submissions and officials met nearly 100 companies. The process also included engagement with a range of Government agencies and Departments, including Enterprise Ireland, which works with indigenous Irish companies. As is always the case with public consultations, the submissions received will be published on the Department of Finance's website. I do not think I can say anything more to influence or change anyone's mind.