Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That is the entire point, namely, whether the State facilitates arrangements. Perhaps the Revenue Commissioners are only implementing what is contained in the Finance Act and the question arises as to who has influence in the drafting of legislation to facilitate such companies. However, I will turn to the issue of the transfer of royalties. While there has been much emphasis on the American hearings, there are many other companies in which one can discern profit-shifting. I refer to figures provided by the Revenue Commissioners on the transfer of royalties in 2007, 2010 and 2012. The value of the royalties transferred in 2007 was €18.6 billion. Five years later, in 2012, it was €32 billion, which almost amounts to a 50% increase in the royalties transferred. However, the profits recorded by the same companies went from €26.5 billion to €25.16 billion.

The profits of the companies went down but the royalties that they transferred out of the country nearly doubled. What are the Revenue's arrangements?

It is difficult to get under the cover here. The Revenue officials stated that Revenue provides advanced opinions to multinational companies. The Revenue engages with these multinational companies on a regular and frequent basis. I do not know how many opinions the Revenue will give a multinational companies but in the case of royalties, will the Revenue talk about those figures that show the companies are being facilitated in transferring twice as many royalties out over the past five years and yet their profits have decreased, which means the State gets less tax? This means the Government then screws others through property tax and septic tank charges and cuts to services because these multinationals are legally transferring profits out.