Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am joining from my office.

I wish to follow up on the question on the calculations of potential revenue. I will focus mainly on the solidarity contribution. What is the potential difference between the expected revenue from the solidarity contribution before and after the decision to allow for the writing-off of capital expenditure? That is capital expenditure on the acquisition and construction of tangible assets in respect of 2018 to 2023. This follows up on the question that while losses were excluded, capital expenditure is deductible in terms of the amount of contribution.

I understand it is deductible in addition to any other relevant capital allowances that may have already been deducted in calculating taxable profits as per the normal rules. We know from reports in the newspapers that this was specifically lobbied for. Apparently, it was not initially envisaged that capital expenditure would be deductible. A decision was made to make it deductible. I would like to know what difference that has made in terms of the expected revenue coming from the temporary contribution measure. I am concerned about the measure in that context. I also wonder about the context in which this measure is coming forward in Ireland. It was rightly acknowledged earlier that the way our current corporation tax measure is being applied, particularly by large energy companies, means that they have effectively been paying 0% tax. I have quotes from Vermilion in 2017, before any of the increases happened, stating that it does not expect to incur income taxes in Ireland for the foreseeable future. It also has no royalties, low operational expenditure and minimum outgoing capital expenditure. To an extent, we had been subsidising fossil fuel companies by means of tax relief measures for a long period leading into the current boom. Does that not create a dynamic whereby not only do we need to ensure we do not carry those measures forward, but we also need to examine the way we have effectively allowed tax relief subsidies to the fossil fuel sector in the lead up to these new measures? I would like a comment on that, and then I want to come to the other important part of it, which is the distributive element of the proposals from the EU.