Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree with my colleague who spoke previously of how we are here today in a charade of a debate because a decision has been made and whatever happens today will make no difference to the Government decision to appeal the ruling from the Commission.

Last week on the RTE news the Taoiseach issued a rallying cry in defence of the rights of small nations. He said that bigger nations in the EU were bullying the smaller countries. That is true but no such rallying call came from the leaders of the political establishment when the European Central Bank bullied Ireland, with 1% of the EU population, into accepting 40% of the cost of the EU bank bailout. In the process it effectively bankrupted the country and forced it into a troika bailout. A brutal austerity regime was imposed on those who could least afford it while, disgustingly, unsecured bondholders were paid off..

There was no support from the Taoiseach or the Government for the rights of small nations when the people of Greece were savagely punished for electing a government that pledged an end to the austerity that was destroying their society, far from it. Now, the rights of small nations are to be enjoined with the rights of the world's richest company to allow it to avoid taxes. The Commissioner has said this company avoided €13 billion in taxes on profits. It paid €500 per €1 million in 2011 and €50 per €1 million in 2014. Now, the Government is going to use taxpayer money, citizens' money, to appeal this Commission finding. People are gobsmacked when I talk to them in the street about what has happened.

We need to face up to the facts. We are a tax haven for big business. We are a leading player in Europe, along with Luxembourg, Switzerland and Netherlands, in assisting multinational companies in avoiding corporation tax to the tune of €1 trillion per year in the European Union. That is the reality. Internationally, we are a leading player in allowing multinational corporations to avoid the payment of €100 billion a year in corporation tax to the world's poorest countries. That is also the reality.

There is a mindset among certain people that asking those with wealth or high incomes to pay tax is some sort of left-wing assault, initiative or enterprise, and an infringement of the rights of private property. The fact is that in business paying tax is looked upon as a cost, like any other cost. In business it is deemed legitimate to reduce that cost as much as possible. There is no sense of the common good or social solidarity in this mindset. It is this which lay behind the Ansbacher accounts and the role of the Irish banks in helping people with money to hide it, to establish bogus non-resident offshore accounts. It is a mindset that needs to be challenged rather than encouraged, as has been the case.

There is nothing new about special tax treatment for multinational corporations investing in Ireland.

In the past we had export relief which meant that multinational corporations, engaged in manufacturing and exports, only paid corporation tax on what they sold in Ireland. That was replaced by a special 10% rate after we joined the EEC. Further pressure from Europe saw this discriminatory rate replaced by the general 12.5% rate for all trading companies in the 1990s.

International pressure forced the previous Government not to end, but to phase out the double Irish over a seven-year period and in its place, at the same time, it introduced the knowledge box and relief for research and development. Using both of those research and development claims will mean a corporation tax of below 6% - less than half of the 12.5% rate.

The overreliance on using tax incentives to attract foreign direct investment has led to an extremely lopsided economy, summed up by the leprechaun economics episode earlier this year when official CSO figures recorded a growth rate in excess of 25%. Adhering to this one-track policy has put us in an insidious position. The jobs of 180,000 workers directly and as many again indirectly are under the implicit threat of, "Play ball on tax, or we're off." How much of a real threat that is is open to question. Anyway, the game is now up. That the EU is losing an estimated €1 trillion a year due to tax avoidance by multinational companies is unsustainable. There will be a movement to an EU corporation tax policy. There is no doubt about that now.

We talk about the rights of small or weaker nations. As I said earlier, it is estimated that at least €100 billion a year is lost to the world's poorest countries. This is amoral disgusting bullying of the weak by the powerful and of the poor by the rich, and it has been going on for decades.

The policy of overreliance on FDI has meant a complete failure to develop an indigenous manufacturing base. More than 90% of Irish companies are in the small and medium-sized category, with the majority employing fewer than 50 people. As a country, we need to develop a new economic model to replace what is a system of gombeen capitalism. The State will have to play a key role in developing publicly owned enterprise.

The other consequence of the policies of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party of non-taxation of wealth, business and high incomes is the low provision and poor quality of our public services. That no one in the political establishment has even considered how €13 billion might solve the housing and homeless crisis or transform the health service says everything about the establishment mindset.

This issue highlights the need for a clean sweep. One hundred years after 1916, what and who are we? A local activist in my constituency commented that we had gone from a banana republic to the Apple republic. We now need to build a movement for a new society for the proper establishment of the republic, modern democratic egalitarian where the common good is primary and where tax justice is paramount.

Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have ruled for 100 years of abject failure. It is time for them to move aside and make way for the future. I am supporting the amendment tabled by Members of the Independents 4 Change and the Technical Group. The key question is the need for all tax rulings, letters of comfort and advance opinions to be made public.

See this speech in context