Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Does the Minister share the IDA's view that over-aggressive use of Ireland with regard to tax planning by multinationals could adversely affect our capacity to attract inward foreign investment, particularly jobs related to the knowledge economy? Does he share the views of the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland that the description of Ireland as a tax haven is a misrepresentation and potentially damaging to Ireland's reputation as a preferred location for investment? The Minister spoke about tax returns a moment ago. Is he aware that if one strips out the US multinationals and transfer pricing on intellectual property, corporation tax undershot, rather than overshot, the estimates for performance last year? We have yet to receive an explanation for this. This is a very serious issue with regard to the positioning of Ireland as a knowledge economy. Does the Minister agree that US multinationals are locating the purchase of intellectual property rights in this economy, but we are not creating jobs commensurate with those rights? In fact, many of the 91,000 jobs about which the Minister spoke are low paid, minimum wage jobs. I do not want to go back to the dreadful Irish Ferries dispute and the outsourcing and dumping of well paid jobs from this economy, which is the other side of the picture. More than 100,000 people marched in the streets because of their fears for the future.

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