Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I strongly disagree with the Minister. Ireland has become Europe's version of the Cayman Islands. It is part of an international architecture for tax avoidance in multinationals. This system of tax avoidance, of which we form a critical part in Europe, is destabilising the global economy. As multinationals are increasingly not paying tax across the world - an act we facilitate - there is a destabilising effect on the world economy, meaning there is no money available to invest in social goods in the real economy or sustainable industry and enterprise.

We cannot just throw up our hands and indicate, as we seem to do with everything, that we are powerless to act on this. We should act because there will be a correction with this issue, as there was with other bubbles, and we should get in ahead of the game. To make low corporate tax rates the cornerstone of industrial policy, as this and previous Governments have done, is to make ourselves a hostage to fortune. Unless we prepare for what will happen, we will live to rue the day. Will the Minister consider the question of at least raising the effective tax rate to 12.5% in an effort to deal with our budgetary crisis?

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