Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the fact that the Minister actually spoke to the amendment. The quality of debate from his backbenchers is appalling. It is no wonder the country got into the state it is in. We are dealing with the Finance Bill and it is a very simple amendment about whether profits accrued from now on should apply to all oil and gas licences. Whether Deputy Paul Murphy paid his household charges is not relevant to this. Deputy Murphy had very little to say when others close to him were accused of not paying their taxes in previous years. This type of debate does not add to the Finance Bill whatsoever.

The Minister answered to the effect that he believed there would be reputational damage and there have been reports saying that would be the case but other jurisdictions have looked into the revenue that could accrue from oil and gas finds from changing the tax rate. Is the Government saying that the rates that are applied to existing finds will continue to apply even if they are still producing after 50 years? Is he tying the hands of this Chamber when it comes to changing taxation rates? If we did the same for motor taxation, the Minister would only change the taxation rates for cars purchased after 18 June 2014. There would be a higher rate for them and a lower rate for everything purchased before that date. The certainty of which he spoke does not exist anywhere else. A grown-up debate would be on whether there was enough counter-evidence to suggest that reputational damage would not be so great.

The rates should at least be kept under advisement. This is not a radical proposal and it does not go as far as what the Minister's own party colleagues signed up to in committee. Deputy Rabbitte said it should be for future finds but this amendment does not even propose the 80% rate for future finds. It is a simple question - should it apply before or afterwards?

As for the standard of the debate, some Deputies should be embarrassed about their carry-on in this Chamber today.

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