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

We will move on from that issue. I thank Mr. Coffey for the graph which is very helpful in getting to the heart of matters. Even if I do not always agree with his interpretation of the facts, I thank him for setting them out. For me, the big issue is the spectacular rise in gross trading profits we have witnessed in recent years and which doubled between 2011 and 2015. To me, the dirty big secret of the Irish economic story is the spectacular rise in profits during many of the years when the country was on its knees and crippled by austerity.

We have been calling for a minimum effective corporation tax rate at least since 2012 because of the enormous gap between gross trading profits and corporation tax yield. When the revenue figure of €6 billion is compared to €144 million paid in corporation tax, it equates to a tax rate of 4.5% approximately, not 10% or 12.5%. Even if it is put against net trading income, the figure is approximately 6.5%. That is the effective rate and a huge proportion of the yield is being paid by a small number of companies that pay an effective rate that is much lower. Is it not clear when one considers the allowances that permit them to write down their taxable income that they find loopholes and exploit them? Capital allowances for intangible assets jumped between 2014 and 2015 from €18 billion to €46 billion. The Government creates the loophole and they jump in as part of a massive tax evasion scam. Similarly, deductions in trade charges jumped from €16 billion to €23 billion. That presumably is intergroup transactions between subsidiaries of the same corporations. Then we have the research and development tax relief mentioned by Mr. Coffey. Are they not just bloody big loopholes that need to be closed through having an effective rate because companies will always exploit them? No matter what adjustments or tweaking the State manages to make after the fact, unless there is an effective rate, they will always be one step ahead.