Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

White Paper on Enterprise Policy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Photo of Louise O'ReillyLouise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our witnesses for coming in this morning, and for all of their work. I would like to ask about concerns regarding the concentration risks in the multinational sector. This is a bit of an economic anomaly, and it is something we in Sinn Féin have highlighted for a number of years. The current volatility - I am going to use that word - in the tech sector is a worrying example of that concentration I referred to in action.

According to the annual taxation report for 2022, almost one third of our income tax receipts are linked to employees in a handful of foreign-owned multinational corporations. Just ten large multinational corporations account for 53% of our corporate tax receipts. What are the policies and supports that are needed to grow indigenous SMEs and microbusinesses in order to allow them to seize new opportunities in respect of high-wage, high-growth and high-productivity sectors and help them link with multinational corporations upstream, establish firm footings and become strong exporters, which we want to see happening? Only the growth of our domestic SME sector and microbusinesses will deliver the necessary economic diversification that will protect us from external macroeconomic shocks. Quite a few microbusinesses and SMEs look at the multinational corporations and see that they cannot break into that area. That is my first question.

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