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

I have made the main point but I add to it the wider question of the various deductions and allowances that a bank or any other corporate entity is allowed to avail of to write down its taxable income. It is a scandal that is waiting to be uncovered when we dig into the detail. We need a forensic analysis of every single one of these headings under which a bank or any other corporate entity is able to write down its tax liability. Looking at the figures before me for 2011, I see there was €39 billion in deductions and allowances under various headings that year. The figure is pretty consistent - in fact, it is rising. I do not know the more recent figures. Every single one of the headings needs to be forensically investigated so that we can see whether we are being robbed. We have a good bit of evidence and we know that these corporate entities employ the best tax lawyers and the big accountancy firms to find ways to reduce their tax liabilities under various headings. Trying to keep up with them is a very difficult job. We will discuss a number of the means later - the section 110s, the means by which Apple managed to avoid taxes and so on. These losses carried forward constitute one of those very significant headings. It is an absolute scandal. Any forensic analysis of these headings under which taxable profits are written down would reveal that the Exchequer and the public are losing out a hell of a lot. The very least the Minister could do is carry out a review of this, consider it closely and let us all see what is happening under this heading, how much potential revenue is being lost and what the case for and against it is. These headings constitute one of the primary mechanisms through which the people of this country are being ripped off enormous amounts of tax revenue.