Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We need to be very clear about one thing - this Government and its predecessors were elected to serve the citizens and not to bend over backwards to help corporations like Apple.

It is wrong that citizens in this country are left struggling, householders are paying unfair taxes such as property tax and small and medium enterprises, SMEs, which create 70% of the employment in the country, are left to struggle. If an SME owes a small sum of money it is chased by the Revenue Commissioners to the point of harassment. That is morally wrong. We need to be very clear on this tonight. Self-employed people have never received any assistance from any government. Here we are trying to safeguard a big corporation which could easily afford to pay more than 0.005% in tax. It is very wrong. We need to be accountable and we need to stand up.

Over the past few weeks I have heard a lot about the need to defend our corporation tax rate. Our low corporation tax rate is essential to attract foreign direct investment and create jobs and I agree totally with that. We must defend our right to set our own tax laws as a matter for a sovereign state. I agree that we, as a small island on the periphery of Europe, must be competitive, but let us be clear: our corporate tax rate is not the only attraction we have for foreign direct investment. We have many good points. Our young, skilled, English-speaking workforce is just as critical to our foreign direct investment strategy as our corporate tax rate.

It appears to me that the Government is willing to risk the reputation and integrity of our State to appease multinationals. Yet that same Government, cheered on by Fianna Fáil, is content to let the education system that provides us with the skilled and educated workforce that we need fall to rack and ruin, if we consider what is happening in the third level sector and in schools. Our growing student and graduate population is the envy of our competitors and represents a huge opportunity for our State in terms of attracting foreign direct investment. Successive governments, however, have stood idly by as a funding crisis emerged in our higher education system, while 2,000 staff were taken out of the sector, core funding per student dropped by 20% and college fees rose to a staggering €3,000, one of the highest rates in the EU. Our citizens were told that there were no resources available to provide much-needed investment and that our students would have to make do with overcrowded libraries, laboratories and lecture halls for the foreseeable future. All this time, however, it appears that successive governments have stood over a grubby little deal that allows a billion-dollar company like Apple to pay a tax rate as low as 0.005% on profits. That is wrong. It cannot continue; it is unacceptable. It is high time the multinationals and large corporations, which benefit hugely from our people and our resources, pay their fair share. That is all we ask them to do - pay their fair share. A fraction of the €13 billion owed by Apple would address the funding crisis in third level education and lay the foundations for our universities and colleges to compete strongly on the international stage. This is not a question of our sovereignty as a nation or our tax rate, and it is certainly not a question of our ability to attract investment and create jobs. The European Commission has made that very clear. Once again our Government is siding with the corporate elite, which comes as no surprise to any of us, at the expense of our citizens, whom it should serve, and the best interests of the people of this State. I am proud to say that neither I nor my party, Sinn Féin, will support the Government in this pathetic decision to appeal.

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