Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

I congratulate everybody who has spoken on the motion and the degree of unanimity is very welcome. We are tip-toeing around the issue because what is happening here is very obvious. It is a nakedly political issue and in considering the timing of what is going on, it is obvious that this is related to what is happening on corporate tax or our negotiations with the ECB, the EU and the IMF. It is related to everything happening in Europe. The Taoiseach was right and we should support him fully in his statement that the CCCTB was simply a means of changing the corporate tax rate via the back door. There is little doubt about that.

This issue has been rumbling along for eight or nine years and seems to be coming to a head now, at the exact time we are under pressure about the corporate tax rate. As Deputy Donnelly has outlined, this is a means of changing the rules in order to undermine the 12.5% rate. The Government is standing steadfast on that rate and if it cannot be changed, the only way around the matter is to change the rules and the basis of calculation. If the proposals from the Commission are implemented, the 12.5% tax rate would be fairly irrelevant, and we will be left high and dry with our 12.5% tax rate, with much less to tax because profits will move elsewhere. It is ingenious and clever but I suggest that the Government take exactly the same attitude to this as it has with the corporate tax rate; if necessary, as Deputy McGrath indicated, a veto can be used.

We can be involved in constructive dialogue but it will only be constructive in name and appearance rather than in the sense as intended by our European partners. I was one of those few people who voted against the Lisbon treaty the first time and in favour of it the second time. I voted against the treaty because of fears about a move against the 12.5% tax rate. At the time I was assured by no lesser people than the Government of the time and the French President when he visited here that there was no threat whatever to the corporation tax rate. He came to the French Embassy and reassured all and sundry that he had no intention in that respect. As a result, assurances were given for the second referendum and they are now ringing extraordinarily hollow.

It seems to be no coincidence that the nation that the proposed changes suit more than any other is France. This is undoubtedly a French-led initiative. I say that as a Francophile and somebody who goes on holidays to France virtually every summer. I say that because I see self-interest, ingenious timing and a great deal of damage to this nation. An Ernst & Young report related such findings.

I suggest that we make it absolutely clear to our European partners that any changes in the CCCTB should be treated in exactly the same way as any changes in the 12.5% tax rate because tax harmonisation is an issue on which we will exercise our right to veto, whether it is done via the back or front door.

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