Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt it is very difficult to run a country in difficult times. I do not take anything for granted and realise it is a massive challenge for the Government to make ends meet. It is unfortunate the austerity philosophy is being dictated from Europe and I believe that in a couple of years, if not sooner, there will be a U-turn on it and people will change tack. Sadly, the austerity programme is doing significant damage from which it will take a long time to recover. Austerity is making life difficult for many people and it will be difficult to reverse this.

The top priority for the Government with the upcoming budget must be to avoid any further deterioration in our social support infrastructure. Last year's budget seriously undermined this and it would be good if this could be redressed, at least in part.

Some bodies have recommended that the ratio of tax increases to expenditure reductions should be reversed. They believe we should be looking at a 2:1 ratio, with tax increases the greater of the two. Given that the money has to come from somewhere, Social Justice Ireland has recommended the imposition of a 2.5% levy on corporation tax. It argues that such a move would bring in €750 million. The Minister will recall that when I spoke in this House two weeks ago, I pointed out that Microsoft pays a corporation tax rate of 7.3%, rather than 12.5%, in this country. If that company had paid 12.5% corporation tax on its 2011 profits of €6.5 billion, the State would have received another €340 million, which would have been dramatic. I emphasise that this phenomenon is repeated in many of the multinational companies that operate in Ireland. It would be great if we could do away with many of the prevailing tax avoidance schemes-----

See this speech in context