Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for attending and for the presentation. The engagement between the Government and the IFAC over recent weeks has been amusing to watch. Although the Government, at the suggestion and demand of the Commission, set up a body designed to push for austerity at all times and to be independent of public pressure, it expressed its discomfort with that body when it did precisely that.

I appreciate that we are operating in the dark somewhat but it would be interesting to explore a little more the unexpected significant increase in corporation tax and the potential reasons for it. I accept the answers the council has given and the potential vulnerabilities.

I understand the corporation tax intake is 58% ahead of that projected, which is very significant. There is an article by Mr. Seamus Coffey in yesterday’s Irish Independentthat argues the increase is associated with a small number of corporations. Mr. Coffey states that in the first ten months of last year, the top ten payers of corporation tax paid €1.3 billion. In the first ten months of this year, the top ten contributed €2.5 billion.

The statement of the Revenue Commissioners that revenues are acceptable for next year is satisfactory. These trends can be acceptable for the following year, but I take the point that was made on the period from 2017 onwards. Is the most likely explanation not that corporations are putting their tax affairs in a certain order to maximise tax efficiency and minimise the amount of tax they pay in the context of the introduction of base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, in terms of the OECD? Surely that or something akin to it is the case. Is there not a shifting of profit locations, thereby having an impact on tax? Surely, if it were all fundamental and the companies were just producing and selling more goods and services, we would see what I describe to a greater extent than at present.