Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The concern I would have is that if we have over time to decrease our reliance on all this corporation tax, we are then asking the consumers of the Irish State to find €8 billion of corporate, excise and carbon taxes and other consumption taxes. At the moment, we are getting these because we are adding the value and having 8,000 or 10,000 people working in Apple, over 2,000 in Microsoft and many in Intel. People are adding value and creating products. We are a small, export economy. That model would be very difficult for us.

I certainly share the concern that there are companies that are avoiding paying tax anywhere. As far as most of us in this country are concerned, we are not looking for the taxes in respect of the Apple €13 billion because we do not think we are entitled to them. Somebody is probably entitled to them but we just do not think, if the phone was designed in California, made in China and sold in Singapore, that we should get the share. If a product is designed, built and manufactured by staff in Ireland, we are entitled to the revenue in the same way, whether it is cola concentrate, pharmaceuticals, medical devices or technology; we have genuinely large companies here. They are here for many reasons, including tax, but equally because we are an English-speaking country in the eurozone and so on.

I would certainly have concerns about Mr. Djankov's idea that we would eliminate or reduce corporation taxes. If we can manage to share a smaller percentage of a much bigger cake and still get the same money, fine, but I would have a very grave concern if we were going to replace corporation tax with consumption taxes on the Irish population. To try to find €8 billion would be an impossible task and not something we could ask people to do in any climate and particularly in the current one, where people in many situations are still recovering from the crash if they have even begun to recover.

Mr. Djankov did not touch as much on the new jobs and how we need to be planning. What should we be looking at in respect of training three to six year olds, upskilling and so on? I never realised three to six year olds were so important to the future but there we go. What particular sectors and areas of growth does he think are suitable for Ireland?