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

I thank both Ministers for their contributions. It seems People Before Profit is alone in challenging the consensus on what we consider to be the immorally low corporation tax rate which is applied here. I refer not just to the nominal rate but to the effective rate. It is derisory and that rate is imposed on some of the wealthiest corporations in the world. We have been pretty much alone in arguing we must do something about this situation. For a long time, more than a decade now, we have argued we should have a minimum effective tax rate for corporations that is at least 12.5% rather than 4.5% and that we should also go higher in that regard. It is immoral that average workers pay a higher proportion of their incomes in taxes than some of the wealthiest corporations in the world do on their revenues.

We have long argued as well that defending this indefensible position shows that Ireland is a tax haven. Some 130 countries around the world have finally had the courage to begin to address this obscene scenario of wealthy corporations paying negligible amounts of tax. Those countries have reached an agreement to impose a minimum effective corporation tax rate of 15%. It is still a low rate. The Minister, however, is still holding out against that rate. The major parties here, including, if I understand this correctly, the major party in Opposition, are defending this indefensible position. Does such a stance not serve to confirm we are a tax haven? Out of 139 countries, 130 signed up to implement a minimum effective corporation tax rate. However, we joined with Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and a few other extremely low-tax regimes in saying "No" and that we must not impose any additional tax burden on these super-wealthy corporations that are paying next to no tax. How can that position be defended? Does it not just confirm that Ireland, as we have said all along, is a corporate tax haven?