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

It does not look like that. This is why the EU is very suspicious, yet again. We have already been told we should have collected €13 billion of tax that we did not collect. The Government has still not taken that money and the interest off Apple and put it in an escrow account. As soon as there was movement on that particular tax avoidance strategy, lo and behold, we made changes which ensure Apple does not pay a single cent more than it was paying previously.

Not a single cent. It is perfect restructuring, almost to the euro. It involves the Channel Islands and the changes in the intangible asset allowance. It works out so perfectly that companies do not pay a single extra cent in tax. Their spin is that they did not pay any less tax. Brilliant. They did not, however, pay any more tax; they paid exactly the same amount of tax. With regard to their tax liability, the net effect of closing down the double Irish is zero as they do not pay any more tax. This company is nakedly avoiding tax. Was the Minister aware of this and will he acknowledge that this is what these companies were and are doing? We might quibble about what the Minister did or did not do, but the reason there had to be movement against the double Irish is because these companies were just nakedly and rampantly seeking to avoid paying tax. What they are doing is immoral; companies are looking around for tax jurisdictions and loopholes in our tax code so they pay no tax. We say it is nothing to do with us, it is inconsistencies between tax codes and there is nothing we can do about it. Yet, Ireland seems to facilitate these companies. First with the double Irish and when a light is shone on the double Irish we then, coincidentally, facilitate them in a new way. We may have done it inadvertently. Is that the explanation? Inadvertently, the change that was made in 2014 perfectly succeeds in doing exactly what Apple would want to do, given that there was a problem developing with the double Irish tax avoidance strategy. This is too much of a coincidence. Does the Minister believe that anybody who looks at this would not say it is too much of a coincidence? The net result is that these companies do not pay a single extra cent in tax. How convenient. Does the Minister not believe that the European Union and Commissioner Vestager have some justification for being suspicious of this and that anybody looking on would say "Jesus, that stinks"?