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

-----but we can continue our debate on another day.

I commend Mr. Clarken and Dr. Stewart on the work of their organisations and their individual work in this whole area. Would Mr. Clarken from Oxfam agree it is fair to say that the major contributing factor to the staggering level of inequality he has identified in his recent report about eight people owning the same wealth as half the world's population is corporations that do not want to pay tax? I know there are lots of contributory factors. Would Mr. Clarken say that is the major contributing factor? What does he think we will be faced with if we do not address the problem in a serious manner in terms of redistributing the wealth that has become heavily concentrated at the top?

I shall ask Dr. Stewart a question as I am out of time. Perhaps both witnesses can answer together. I have read the TASC seminar report put together by Dr. Stewart and Mr. Cillian Doyle on the section 110 issue to which Dr. Stewart alluded earlier. The report is brilliant and quite shocking. Dr. Stewart has said that 2,500 financial vehicle corporations, FVCs, could be benefitting from the provisions of section 110, which essentially is a scheme whereby no tax is paid on assets worth hundreds of billions of euro. If I have understood correctly what Dr. Stewart said - I ask him to confirm and elaborate slightly - there is little or no regulation on this area and there is not even joined-up thinking between the Central Bank and Revenue in terms of getting information on these firms. Dr. Stewart cited a range of stockbrokers, financial organisations, etc. that tout Ireland as a country without financial regulation and in which virtually no tax is paid on assets worth hundreds of billions of euro. I ask him to comment further on that point.