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

When the Minister says that Ireland's corporate tax revenue has increased he forgets to mention the extraordinary rise in profits during that period. The percentage increase in profits far outstrips any proportionate increase in tax revenue. For example, 2012 pre-tax trading profits were €76 billion. By 2015 these had gone up to €149 billion. As we know, and we can surmise, a vast amount of that is attributable to these companies' enormous and spectacular increase in profits that are beyond belief. A doubling of aggregate corporate tax profits is overwhelmingly attributable to a small number of companies.

Just as those profits go through the roof we give them extra tax allowances to ensure that there is not a commensurate increase in the proportion of tax that we will get from it. I accept that there is some increase - how could there not be - when profits increase to that extent. Proportionately, however, the effective rate is going down not up. It is actually going down and it is already pitifully low.

In addition, the effective rate as against the total profits is actually falling for these companies because of measures that we are taking or our failures to close down these loopholes. In doing that they are robbing this country of tax revenues that we should be getting. They are also robbing people all around the world. All of the tax and global justice groups say this kind of behaviour that Apple, Facebook and Google are engaging in is the major contributory factor to growing global inequality, poverty and deprivation. These people are robbing us blind in a deliberate, naked and explicit drive to ensure that they pay no taxes whatsoever.

The Minister has not really answered the question as to whether he finds that morally repugnant. Is the Government bothered by that? The signs are, given the behaviour of the Government, that it does not find it repugnant but in fact at best turns a blind eye to it and at worst is actively colluding with it. Deputy Doherty and I have both set out the chain of events where very serious questions are now also being asked by the European Union about what happened and why it happened. We also need to know about the lobbying and the interactions that this Government had with Apple and with any of these other companies.

The one aspect on which I will agree with the Minister is that this is not about one company, although there is definitely one favoured company that is leading the charge. It concerns a few companies, a very small number. It is maybe five to ten companies who accrue these massive tax benefits because of the regime that we have and the changes that we made in terms of window we created for them between 2014 and now. The move to reintroduce the 80% rate is closing the door after the horse has bolted and followed the massive onshoring of these assets. That allows those companies to pay no tax for a decade ahead against these enormous profits. It looks like collusion. Their behaviour is certainly immoral. Does the Minister agree that it is immoral?

If the Minister does agree that it is immoral, why do we not capture the additional tax benefit that these companies have accrued as a result of the change from the 100% to the 80% going back to when that change was made? Why do we not do that if we think it is wrong? I do not see how anybody could say what they are doing is not wrong. Why do we not do it? Is it because we made an agreement with them? Is it that we gave assurances to Apple and a few others at the time that we are going to allow them to do that? Otherwise, I do not see why we would not do it. Many people, and not just the left and Sinn Féin, are saying that the window they were given should be closed and we should recover that 20% difference which resulted from the changes in 2014 and, in the process, get the €800 million or so that would accrue if we did that.