Mr. Máirtín Ó Muilleoir:

If we believe we are now at the bottom, and it is a decision for this House and for the members of the committee if they believe the 12.5% corporation tax in this State is at the bottom, the question then is do we want tax harmonisation across the island and the answer to that is: "Yes, we do". However, we want it for the same reasons that it has won the endorsement of elected officials here, but that is not to say that it cannot always be re-examined. We believe it will create tens of thousands of jobs and level the playing field on the island. We believe we can seek greater co-operation not by stealing each other's jobs but where, say, a company in Limerick, Waterford or Dublin could say that perhaps we should have a base in Enniskillen as well and enjoy the same corporate tax rate there. Despite all the turbulence, whether it surrounds Brexit or the President-elect, Mr. Trump, I am committed to this and I am confident that on 1 April 2018 I will harmonise corporate tax rates on this island at 12.5% in the North. However, as I have said to all our colleagues when I have met them at business events, 12.5% is 12.5%, it is not either what Apple pays or what Cerberus pays, it has to be 12.5%. It has to lead to more jobs so that we get a greater corporation tax take.

The difference between us and the situation here is something that I have started to tease out with the British and engage in a discussion around it. The great benefit down here was that when Apple created 6,000 jobs in Cork, the Exchequer here got PRSI payments, the nice insurance payments as we call them, VAT accruing from sales and income tax from those taxpayers. At this stage we do not get those secondary benefits. While this may not be not be a discussion around corporation tax, it needs to lead into every area of economic policy because, currently, the beneficiary of people in County Sligo travelling to shop in Enniskillen is the British Exchequer. My Department estimates there is an increase of approximately €60 million in the Treasury's coffers in London because of people crossing the Border to shop in an Asda store or a Tesco store in Newry rather than shopping in a Tesco store south of the Border. The same is the case with respect to other ways in which we want to build the economy and drive forward. We need to see the benefits.

There was a reference to duties and taxes. We have an air passenger duty, but there is not such a duty here and I congratulate Dublin Airport on its record number of passengers. If I was to remove air passenger duty, I would have to pay the British Government or suffer the loss of £X million from the block grant but we would not get the benefits, because we would not get the VAT accruing from tourist spending.

The journey of fiscal control of our own destiny is only starting. I believe it was Senator Reilly who mentioned yesterday that we do not control the tax but we do control more than €1.4 billion in property tax and we will also have the corporation tax yield. I am opposed to a race to the bottom. Interestingly, in Britain where they have reduced the corporation tax, the tax take has not really gone down. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has resolved to reduce the rate to 17% by 2020 and we will have to wait and see if the tax take continues to increase. The gap between 12.5%, the rate we want to have, and the 17% rate is not that great. Therefore, the cost from the block grant will not be as great either.

In general terms, this is a big area of work for us all of us to engage in with the British Government. I will meet the chief secretary of the Treasury on 12 December and I want to get down to these matters. I am against a race to the bottom. We have seen what that has meant in terms of globalisation and the blowback against that. What Cerberus has done in this land has been a shame. Ordinary people's businesses have been destroyed. It picked its winners, the chosen few, and, worse than that, its practices corrupted the entire political, business, legal and accountancy professions north of the Border. It would not surprise me if it only paid €1,000 in tax, if it paid any at all. That is the values of the race to the bottom that it brought to the business world here.