Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

This is like proposals to increase the effective rate of corporation tax or to close corporate tax loopholes, whereby the answer from the Government is always the same. It says that it is not necessarily against the idea but that everyone would have to do it at the same time. This is just an excuse to lag behind developments and to try to maintain our tax haven status. The Government will always find an excuse. When enhanced co-operation is taking place, for example, the Government is very pointedly not involved even though it is something that is happening on a cross-member state basis. The Government then shifts the goalposts and says that it must happen all across the EU but it is not really interested in that happening either.

This is partly about tackling or moving away from the tax haven model of the Irish economy. Profits from financial and insurance activities in Ireland last year amounted to €23.8 billion. That is a profit of €625,000 for every single employee in the IFSC, which is an extreme outlier in terms of financial profitability and it points to the reality that Ireland is a major tax haven. Ireland plays a particular role in the chain of tax havens around the world. It is not the same as Panama, Bermuda or elsewhere but plays a particular role and part of that accounts for the size of our financial sector, which is absolutely out-sized. This means that we suffer from the finance curse. This amendment is about dealing with that. We estimate that on top of the stamp duty, this measure would raise an additional €209.6 million on an annual basis. Clearly, there are lots of very good things upon which that money could be spent but it is also clear that this Government is not interested in that.