Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, am glad to speak on this motion. I compliment the special committee that brought this matter to our attention. Deputy Boyd Barrett said this was to go through without any debate. It is always important that we have a debate, no matter what our views are. It is important that we do not pass these measures without debate. I compliment the committee on not rolling over and accepting what was proposed in this instance. As with previous speakers, I believe this is too serious an issue. Many of our indigenous companies are now multinationals. Included in this regard are Kerry Group, Glanbia and numerous others, which are employing thousands of people. All the time, we must be mindful of where they started. They started small. Tosach maith, leath na hoibre. Many of these companies are flagship companies, including in our agri-food industry.

In this case, there should be total transparency with regard to accounting and accounting methods of all these companies. I hasten to add, however, that we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. In Clonmel in my constituency and Dungarvan in the neighbouring constituency, there has been considerable foreign direct investment. Multinationals are providing considerable employment and supporting ancillary services and the service industry. These multinationals are huge and many have been here for decades. Predecessors of mine and others, including officials in the county councils, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, worked very hard to bring them here. We must have a reasonable, reflective and balanced debate because we do not want to hunt all the companies out of our country. If we are all poor, we will be limited afterwards, having closed the door when the horse has bolted.

The committee has discussed this. It is reflective of the new circumstances in the Dáil that it has agreed not to accept the diktat from the euro-giants. It is important that we show our independence and sovereignty and tell them we are not ready all the time just to rubber-stamp what they want, sometimes in the form of statutory instruments related to much of the legislation coming here from Europe. People are concerned. Perhaps this is why Brexit will occur. Perhaps people in the UK will prove to have wanted to shake off the shackles associated with draconian legislation that is not properly researched or thought through, and without impact assessments on the effects on countries such as Ireland, an island nation on the periphery.

Certain other countries are clever in how they proceed in terms of tax transparency. They might have the very same or a better regime of taxation to attract multinationals from abroad. They might not be as transparent in terms of how they account for that or how they cover it in their taxation system or circulate the information.

I, too, have concerns about the big companies. Deputy Clare Daly mentioned the big accounting companies. We see day in, day out how they operate in this country. They do not work solely for the multinationals. They are involved in receiverships and insolvency cases of any reasonable size. In more than 90% of cases, they are wheeled out. The same golden circle seems to get all the business. It is not a very nice business and can be very unpleasant but the companies are a dab hand at it. They are wheeled out and appointed by the courts, banks and everybody else to take on the business. We found in some cases that the companies acted as advisers to some of the banks that went bust.

We definitely need to have a proper and reasoned debate on all these issues. It is important that we debate this important topic this evening, albeit for a short period. I thank the committee for debating the proposal and not just rubber-stamping it and saying, "Grand, it is all okay".

See this speech in context