Dáil debates

Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Corporate Tax Policy: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

 

6:40 pm

Photo of Liam TwomeyLiam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am surprised by some of the comments made by Deputy Pearse Doherty. Ireland may be an island but it is part of the global economy. Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland is trying to compete with the South in attracting foreign direct investment. While certain members of the Opposition are ignorant of the facts, that is not the case for Deputy Doherty, because he is well aware that Ireland has fully participated in the OECD's BEPS project for some years. He also knows the Government is committed to addressing these issues but that Ireland is not in a position to jump alone. Deputy Doherty may smile at that comment but he knows it to be true.

Some aspects of the motion will bring tears of joy to the eyes of officials in Berlin, London and Paris who would love Ireland to be shut down as a location for foreign direct investment, FDI. A unilateral decision to pursue a certain policy that salves the conscience of Deputy Doherty and other Opposition Deputies would end the contribution FDI companies make to the economy. Perhaps his party colleague, Deputy Jonathan O'Brien, would be happy to have the 4,000 workers employed by Apple in Cork lose their jobs in order that he can have a clear conscience when discussing these issues. Perhaps other members of the Opposition would like Intel to close down and move elsewhere, having invested €25 billion in Ireland in the past 20 years. If that is their policy, it is a crazy one.

BEPS will work because it seeks to have all countries move together to eliminate aggressive taxation avoidance. I give Deputy Pearse Doherty credit for no longer confusing the corporation tax rate of 12.5% with the Government's stated policy of eliminating aggressive tax avoidance schemes. That is a step in the right direction from a Deputy who is adept at engaging in spin and taking a selective approach in his contributions. He knows damn well that aggressive tax avoidance cannot be addressed comprehensively unless all countries move together. It was for this reason that the OECD was mandated to examine the issue, and it has worked on BEPS for the past four years. The 15 steps the organisation calls on all countries to take were agreed only last week. Ireland has been actively involved in making the BEPS process work.

The Government strongly believes that foreign direct investment has a major role to play in the economy. Not all of the 100,000 jobs that depend on FDI are senior executive positions. Many are held by people providing cleaning, building, transportation, electrical and other services to foreign companies located here. These companies are vital to the economy and very important for growth. It is disingenuous of Deputies to diss foreign direct investment as something we can forego or do not want and blacken the names of specific companies.

Deputy Doherty referred to a European Commission investigation into a certain company operating here. As he is aware, Commission investigations into exactly the same types of issue are under way in many other member states. The issues involved are complex. I can barely understand the concept of transfer pricing, for example, but perhaps Deputy Doherty is more of an expert on it than I am. In light of my discussions on BEPS with the OECD in recent years, I accept that transfer pricing can give rise to certain issues. Perhaps I, too, should take a simplistic approach and try to boil this issue down to "us and them" or other countries getting away with things we are unable to do. That is silly talk, however, and I expect more from Deputy Doherty, albeit not from his Opposition colleagues in the Technical Group whose sole argument does not make any sense.

Does Deputy Boyd Barrett want Google, Facebook and companies in the International Financial Services Centre to close down with the loss of many jobs? While Google may not be located in his constituency, some of his constituents either work in multinational companies or provide services to them. Does he want them all to leave the country to salve his conscience?

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