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

I did not speak to the second part of my amendment and I want to say one brief word to put it all together before the Minister comes back in. This is specifically on the research and development tax credit. I am asking the Minister to consider whether the amount of money which has been given in a tax allowance for research and development to a very small number of corporations, as has already said, would be better spent on public universities. The debate is often framed as follows. If one is against research and development credits, one is claimed to be against innovation and research and development. I am very much in favour of research and development but there is an opportunity cost in giving the funding to private companies through tax expenditures because that money is not going to public universities. There would be a lot more benefit and advantage for the domestic economy if that happened. I refer to the real Irish economy as against the economy that exists around a tiny number of multinational corporations which could be gone at any point and who get far more from us than we get from them. We should look at which approach would provide a greater benefit to the Irish economy and society as a whole. Is it to continue with this very large tax expenditure which benefits private corporations or is it to provide that money for research and development in our public universities? I ask the Minister to address that point.