Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Everyone would agree that more transparency in this area is welcome. However, when one digs down, everyone has different views on what we mean by transparency. This is the difficulty with this proposal.

The €750 million threshold is far too high. Ms Greene mentioned the recommendation to change this to 500 employees.

On country-by-country reporting for MNC operations in EU states, we know that some EU states use their former colonies and tax-avoidance schemes. Again, no one seems to be looking at that. It seems to be just within the EU itself. The significant avoidance measures in which they are engaging are starving developing countries of much-needed legitimate tax revenues through processes such as tax pricing, paying tax in an EU state at a reduced rate and other loopholes. This has been highlighted by Christian Aid and some other organisations.

Do the delegates believe the reputational damage mentioned in the document will have an effect on Ireland's reputation, particularly as some say it is an enabler of massive tax avoidance schemes? The last Government talked about doing away with the double Irish tax structure, despite having denied for years that it actually was in place. Huge profitable companies have used it such as Google, Microsoft and so on. We know this as there have been investigations. However, they still have until 2021 to restructure their tax avoidance measures. Will these new measures pick up on this or is it a separate issue? Is implementation of the so-called knowledge box measures another tax avoidance measure?

As I said, everyone is in favour of tax transparency - I am sure the multinationals which use these schemes are publicly in favour of it - but the problem is that it is not being implemented. We are looking at the issue within the European Union but, as many others and I argue, we should be looking at it across all countries where multinationals are involved. While I accept that there are problems with the sensitivities, if we are serious about making the measures work, that is only way it will happen. Some companies take their own measures, while some countries, even within the European Union, operate legitimate tax loopholes. Unless we agree to commonality across the board, something on which there is no agreement, we are faced with this problem. Nonetheless, there is broad consensus, particularly among those dealing with developing countries, that this needs to happen across the board in all countries, not just within the European Union. That may all sound like a statement rather than a question, but there are questions within it.