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

As an absolute minimum we need this report. The profits and revenues being generated by these IT companies are absolutely staggering and they are not properly taxed. These companies are leading the charge on aggressive tax avoidance and we must find a way for them to pay their fair share.

In the Minister's comments on this yesterday, he stated he is concerned that if fewer profits were made because of the imposition of a digital tax on sales that may happen elsewhere in Europe it would mean fewer profits declared here and less tax revenue. There may be some discussion about what type of digital tax would be applied and how it would be fair and would not overly disadvantage a country such as Ireland, but the general principle that these people should be taxed to a far greater degree than they are is, to me, a no-brainer. It has to happen, it will happen and it is right that it should happen. We need at the very least to start to have a detailed debate about it. The proposal for a report in these amendments is entirely appropriate.