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

I know that it is a Government decision, but the point I am making is that they can then engineer the price such that they manage the tax liability. Mr. Cody states the arm's length principle applies, but it was explained to me in an email by an anonymous guy working in one of the companies - I will not mentioned the name - that the company literally stated how much money it had made and turned it into a cost. That is what they do. If the profit figure is €500 million, €600 million or €700 million, what is actually a profit becomes a cost at the stroke of a pen. They use the subsidiary located in the low tax location or the location in which no tax is paid - in the particular case outlined in the Paradise Papers and our intangible assets allowance regime - which allows them to pay no additional tax. What is becoming apparent with the "single malt" is that they are also doing it in places with which we have double taxation agreements. That is the latest move in the constant innovation of their tax evasion strategy to utilise countries with which Ireland has double taxation agreements to do exactly the same thing - claiming that they are owned and controlled in one of the place in which no tax is paid and with which Ireland has a double taxation agreement, which allows them to achieve the same end. It is obvious tax evasion. I think it was Mr. Eddie Hobbs who wrote recently about many of the big consultancy and accountancy firms in the docks that were openly touting that companies moved their money to Malta as it was no problem because of the double taxation regime in place. A company can pretend it is owned and controlled in Malta and get away with tax avoidance. The firms specifically cite Ireland's double taxation agreements as the mechanism through which it is done.