Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This European Council meeting was billed as a co-ordinated effort against tax evasion to attack tax dodgers throughout the world. The Taoiseach was highly unfortunate in that the day before he travelled, he was ambushed from the United States. Moreover, when United States Senators Carl Levin and John McCain made their comments, at least one of them accused Ireland of being a tax haven. This sent absolutely wrong reverberations around the world that Ireland somehow was in the same bracket as places such as the Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Vanuatu and so on. This is not where Ireland stands on the tax evasion or tax haven spectrum. What Ireland does is something different. While I acknowledge it is somewhat unusual for me to state this, what the Government has done in respect of holding onto the corporate tax rate is utterly right and I urge it to continue to hold that position. It will be difficult to do so because those in Europe who have been gunning for Ireland's 12.5% corporate tax rate for so long will take great encouragement from our supposed friends in the United States, who have taken a pop at us and accused us of something of which we blatantly are not guilty.

What we do very well is indulge in tax competition, which is rife in Europe. It would be naive of any Member not to recognise that tax competition is increasing by the day. Portugal, Britain and the eastern countries all are cutting their corporate tax rates to a rate which is below that of Ireland. It is more complicated than that of course, because there are all sorts of little sweeteners offered. In this context, however, one should not forget about the French. The French rate of corporate tax is more than 30% - I believe it is 33% - but its effective rate is being hotly debated. It may be 8% or it may be 5%. Consequently, let not Members of this House, the French or our friends in Europe pretend that Ireland is committing some sort of cardinal sin when the dodges they are up to, if one looks at it that way, are specifically designed to deceive. I see nothing wrong with tax competition and consider it to be rather healthy. However, I do perceive the lack of transparency to be wrong.

Moreover, the response from the Taoiseach should perhaps have been a little more aggressive. While the efforts already under way by the IDA in America to deny the story are welcome, perhaps the Taoiseach should have stated that although Ireland is not a tax haven, people should come to look at our wares because Ireland is very attractive and not only does one get a 12.5% tax rate, there also are additional incentives. Let us not be ashamed of that because there are other legal incentives. In addition, let us not pretend otherwise; there are special deals. Different deals are offered to different people not on the tax rate, but in offering incentives to organisations to locate in certain regions or in respect of other allowances that are open to specific companies to attract them. In this context, I say thank God we have got Google, Apple and the rest here in Ireland and in consequence have those 150,000 jobs plus. Thank God that GDP has increased by God knows what percentage, as the IDA has stated it would drop by 30% were the multinationals to leave. This place would be an economic desert without those companies and while this may not be a welcome message, it is true.

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