Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure what information the company is using but statistics indicating Ireland is not a tax haven are accepted by the US Government and the White House. I remind the Deputy of what the chief executive of the major company mentioned in this context said publicly, namely, that no special arrangement or deal was done by this country with his company. We are not entitled to do such a deal anyway because the corporate tax legislation here is statute based and very clear. It cannot allow for special deals to be done with any individual company. The Senate committee may well have its own agenda. Obviously, it has capacity to deal with elements of US tax legislation, if it wishes. I repeat that this country has no difficulty whatsoever in standing up for what we do here and the fact that we can only tax on profits generated here. The World Bank clearly points out that Ireland's effective tax rate is 11.9%. Second, Ireland is the fourth country to sign with the United States with the effect of saying we open our books in terms of the sharing of information about tax issues. Third, during our Presidency, we reached an agreement at the European Council that the principle of the development of a new international tax code has to be dealt with because no individual country can deal with it on its own. As somebody pointed out to me, an item manufactured in Ireland and sold in another country generates an element of tax here, in the country in which it is sold and where the intellectual property might well be vested.

Corporations that use many jurisdictions operate according to the various tax environments in those jurisdictions. As the Deputy knows, we do not do what are called the brass-plate operations, in respect of which the company that was mentioned has over 4,000 highly paid technicians and software engineers in the country. Therefore, there is a real investment, which proves Ireland is not a tax haven. None of the four criteria set out by the OECD that determines countries as tax havens is met in any way by Ireland. Everything points in the other direction. Ireland, as one country, is more than willing to play its part with its European colleagues in developing an international code that stands up. As I stated, some of the countries that were very conservative in the dispensing of their information on this have now come forward and said we must develop measures in a collaborative and co-operative way.

With regard to the question on activities in other countries that are at war, these matters are raised through our European contacts, at European Council level and with the high representative. On the last occasion I raised this, it was to tender the condolences of the Irish people to the Italian Prime Minister, whose forces lost a member in Afghanistan when, unfortunately, a bomb was thrown by a young child into a facility there.

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