Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Fáilte ar ais, a Cheann Comhairle.

Apple's CEO, Mr. Tim Cooke, has told a US Senate investigation that for the past ten years Apple Sales Ireland has paid an average corporation tax rate of just 2%. In 2011 this company paid at a tax rate of just 0.5%. Another company, Apple Operations International, also based here had an income of €30 billion between 2009 and 2012 and, amazingly, paid no tax whatsoever. How is this possible? I cannot imagine a local business getting away with this type of tax avoidance. It is one law for big corporations, developers and bankers and another for small businesses and ordinary citizens. Why was the standard 12.5% rate not applied to these companies? The Tánaiste knows that the hundreds of millions of euro in lost revenue could have been used to get people back to work, but instead ordinary people must pay more taxes to make up the shortfall. He will also know from his portfolio that this type of tax avoidance hurts the developing world. Christian Aid estimates that the lives of 350,000 children could be saved each year if this kind of corporation tax avoidance was ended. Was the CEO of Apple right when he said the average rate of tax paid by one of these companies was less than 2%? Can the Tánaiste confirm that the other Apple company has paid no tax since 2009? Will he tell us how many other companies are availing of these tax arrangements and how much revenue is being lost to the economy?

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