Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Not in recent times.

A number of weeks ago, a report was published by Oxfam on international banking in Dublin and how profitable it is from a tax point of view. The report stated that out of 160 foreign banks located in Ireland, which are generally in the remit of the IFSC, approximately 120 of them had a corporation tax rate at or below 6% and some of their tax rates fell as low as 2%. Ireland is shipping quite a lot of reputational damage, notwithstanding the very detailed participation in the OECD BEPS process. It is very difficult to understand, because service companies such as banks do not make anything and push money around. They have a low tax rate, which is very competitive internationally at 12.5% and which is very defensible, but we have a report that fairly reliably indicates the vast majority of these companies pay between 2% and 6% corporation tax on their profits.

The tax strategy group was mentioned, and earlier in the meeting, before I had to leave for a while, it was stated the Department found the recent tax returns for the first quarter, whereby overall income tax came in below par, to be very puzzling. The Department must surely be puzzled by this phenomenon with these companies. They do not necessarily have a lot of capital investment. I do not know whether they have a lot of intellectual property in Ireland or shipped here from abroad or whether they have other mechanisms but I am at a loss, particularly because of my accounting experience, to understand how a low 12.5% rate can be reduced to between 2% and 6%.

This could potentially cause serious damage to Ireland's reputation at a time when we need friends. The Brexit negotiations are going to be incredibly difficult. All sorts of people will be coming along with their requests in quite complicated negotiations. How does one approach this kind of study? Has the witness engaged with the authors of the study? The Minister for Finance tells me that he has finally asked some officials to meet the authors of the study. How does one address this?

In terms of the overall leadership roles of the two Departments in respect of the public sector, has each carried out a detailed Brexit impact assessment and, if so, can the findings be shared with us?