Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to make a few points. This is the most serious challenge to face Ireland's attractiveness for foreign direct investment since the time of Lemass. The European Commission has been remarkably political in how it made this announcement. At the initial press conference the relevant Commissioner said this was the most important day politically for President Junker. To use an analogy with which we are familiar in this House, to do what the Commission did would have been as if we had released the report of the banking inquiry before it was legally proofed by all those mentioned in it.

It seemed to have much more to do with facilitating the media spin the EU wished to achieve internationally in its relentless and aggressive pursuit of the Irish effectiveness in marketing itself as a location for foreign direct investment since the time of Lemass. The relentless pursuit of portraying Ireland as a Bermuda - somewhere that flouts law to its own benefit at the expense of others - is fundamentally wrong. It is an appalling abuse on the part of the EU Commissioner involved and on the part of the Commission collectively for agreeing to go along with it.

To juxtapose the state aid rules in Article 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and in some way to use that to determine the tax laws of an individual country is fundamentally wrong. Articles 107 and 108 clearly state that any state measure that grants a selective advantage that distorts competition and affects trade between member states is, in effect, illegal and is state aid which is disallowed. The European Commission claims that Apple’s Irish subsidiary received an advantage that was not open to other Irish companies. This is simply not the case and I believe our appeal will clearly show this.

Against the backdrop of much spin in the media and by certain politicians, it is a matter of great concern that in the first instance the Taoiseach did not book time with the national broadcaster to explain to the people why this money is not owed to Ireland. If it was, of course, we would all want it. It simply is not ours and the Taoiseach should have done that, and still should do it. He should go on an international onslaught to counteract the damage that has been done by European authorities in the way they have manipulated the international agenda against Ireland in this regard and show that we have been far from flouting tax law. Speaking of the changes we have made over the years, the Secretary General of the OECD stated: “Ireland has been staying the course and it is making the necessary modification and the adjustments and I'm very happy, very proud to say Ireland has been a strong and very exemplary case..."

There has been no mention of the US tax code and how it permits the deferral of the repatriation of profits. One need only go back to the United States JOBS Act of 2013 and 2014 which, in an effort to fund the measures President Obama had put forward at the time, encouraged multinationals resident in the US to repatriate profits to fund those systems, which did, in fact, occur. As other Members have mentioned, €13 billion or some billions may well be owed and may well be owed to the American Exchequer in line with their roots, but they are not owed to us.

What the European Commission has done in this instance is simply reprehensible and it has been highly selective in its application of its own rules. There was a national example of this in the past 24 hours. Where is the European Commission on Volkswagen's breaches? One is bound to say that Volkswagen, which is resident in Germany, does not seem to have had the necessary scrutiny. In this country yesterday, the legal representatives of Volkswagen walked out of a court, wishing not to acknowledge the authority of a court in this country. The Germans have form on this, going back to the London debt agreement in 1953, where it decided to cut the bill in half. Then in 1989 following the reunification of Germany, it decided not to pay any interest either. There was no issue with that.

The reality is that there is frustration with the success of the Irish model of taxation and in creating a template that is attractive to foreign companies. The European Commission has now used state aid law to try to manipulate an interpretation of tax.

The Taoiseach needs to go on an international offensive in this regard. We should not be afraid to unilaterally condemn the action of the European Commission which is operating way outside its remit at this stage. While we in Fianna Fáil, like so many others, are totally committed to the European project, against the backdrop of what we have seen in this instance and in Brexit, it may well be necessary for the EU to take a couple of steps back in order for us to identify the correct steps forward.

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