Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Burton has made that point very well. We will now conclude. There will be an opportunity afterwards for further discussion.

It is very clear from the committee that Ireland has significant concerns about these proposals. The witnesses may need to refresh themselves in regard to our reasoned opinion because I am sure they have been bombarded with data from all 27 member states, although not all provided a reasoned opinion, . Approximately 80% of our corporation tax base relates to foreign multinationals, with about 40% of the total coming from the top ten multinationals. Companies such as Apple and so on provide very significant employment in this country and generate wealth that is exported around the world and not just within the EU. We need to see a country-by-country impact analysis of who the winners and losers will be before we could go any further with this.

I, like most Irish people, am not against corporations paying tax. We want them to pay their fair share of tax in the appropriate location but it is often the case that this is not that location. Ireland should not receive €13 billion from Apple for a phone designed in America, manufactured in China and sold in Singapore. We do not believe we are entitled to those profits but are being told that we are. We are not saying nobody should get that €13 billion but we do not believe it should be us. However, there is a concern that companies are being advised that this is how they will now be treated, having experienced a different regime in the past. Ireland once had a 10% manufacturing tax rate and 43% corporation tax rate and was told it could not have a manufacturing rate, so merged the two into one. We want corporations to pay their fair share of tax in the appropriate locations but we need to see an analysis of the redistribution of the tax within Europe. There will be winners and losers and we need to be sure of what might be the impact on the Irish economy if this proposal were to go further.

I thank the witnesses for their attendance and members for their participation.