Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like other Deputies I listened with incredulity to the speeches this morning of the Minister, Deputy Noonan and the Taoiseach. Both speeches were full of contradictions revolving around self-praise for the beginnings of the first fundamental reform of our corporation tax system since 2012-13 and a total refusal to accept that certain foreign multinationals were heavily favoured by Irish Finance Acts down through the decades since the 1960s. The Taoiseach waxed lyrical this morning about the importance of the 187,000 FDI supported jobs for our people and the sterling work of the IDA since the early 1950s. Nobody can deny the huge importance of that investment and the contribution it has made to transforming the lives of ordinary Irish families. I have listened to the Cork Deputies with interest about the contribution of Apple. However, the general disquiet felt by constituents over the years about the hugely favourable taxation of high net worth individuals and companies included grave concerns that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael led governments were permitting massive multinationals to turn Ireland into a tax haven in Finance Bill after Finance Bill. Even long before the 1991 and 2007 Revenue tax opinions on the operation of Apple companies, I recall the Sunday Independentpublishing a detailed investigative report on a prominent Californian IT company based in north Dublin. That report clearly showed that transfer pricing was effectively being used by the company and its affiliates in the Netherlands and in an offshore location to greatly minimise its Irish and United States corporation tax bills. The useful reports on the Apple - Vestager judgment prepared for us by the Department of Finance seems to indicate that up to 300 companies based in Ireland have been looked at by the EU Competition Commissioner and that no further action may be taken on foot of these examinations. However, the sterling investigative work carried out by editor Ian Kehoe and his colleagues at The Sunday Business Postconcludes that around six multinationals - at least six - struck sweetheart deals with the Irish State in the early 1990s. The amendment to the motion in the name of my colleagues and myself clearly states that this House should now be given all the details of every one of those deals and all similar information on the 300 tax examinations I have referred to.

Like the Acting Chairman I was a member of the Committee of Public Accounts of two Dáileanna and on many occasions raised the issues of the volume of outstanding taxes and the numbers of companies and corporations involved. Clearly, the level of secrecy - allegedly on commercial grounds and to protect the work of the IDA - which surrounded the Apple deal and other deals and the deliberately obscurantist framing of Finance Bills has withheld key information on the huge tranches of tax revenue

deliberately siphoned away from the Irish, American and European peoples over recent decades. When we requested information on the cost of FDI jobs from the relevant Departments and agencies, it was clear that taxes deliberately forgone and serious tax expenditures were not factored into the equation. We were not given the information, as the Acting Chairman will remember. If one examines our creaking health, education and welfare systems and the the grossly deficient housing and transport investment over the decades, it is clear that a truly fair and transparent corporation tax system would have significantly enhanced these resources for our people. That is why we should now accept the Apple ruling, move on and put the €19 billion - or whatever the amount is - into the escrow account until Apple’s own appeal is decided.

I welcome the review of the corporation tax code which was promised this morning by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, which he said is intended to ensure that Ireland meets the standards of the OECD base erosion and profit shifting, the BEPS project. According to the Minister’s speeches over the past year, the very appetising "double Irish" and "Dutch sandwich" can no longer be served up to giant multinationals like Google. Our new knowledge box half rate corporation tax seems also to meet international and OECD standards. Given these improvements in transparency and the explicit statement by Commissioner Vestager that “this decision does not call into question Ireland’s general tax system or its corporate tax rate", it seems incredible that Ireland is appealing the Apple decision. It is outrageous that we do not have the full Apple ruling in the House - it is treating the House very badly. The reality is that the Commission's report clearly indicates that Ireland did a special tax deal with Apple Inc. and its Irish subsidiaries.

Other EU states and states close to the EU including the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Switzerland also facilitated giant multinational companies in return for investment and jobs. The Acting Chairman probably appreciates that it is highly ironic that the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, led the Luxemburg Government for many years which facilitated massive tax avoidance, and probably tax evasion, as revealed in the Lux leaks disclosures. The governments of France and Germany and sometimes even the UK in particular have looked in envy for a long time at the concentration of American high-tech companies in Ireland. That is why the reputational damage done to Ireland by the Commissioner’s ruling may have very serious consequences as the larger EU states seek to continue to try to circumscribe the smaller states’ competence in the area of taxation. Those large states ignore the profound cultural and family connections between Ireland and the US which continue to make Ireland a very comfortable home for US investment within the EU. Apple has given reassurance on its plans to maintain its major Irish presence, come what may says Mr. Cook. We need to ensure that multinationals pay their fair share of taxation in the country where economic activity takes place and that any offshore elements of sectors such as Ireland's financial services and marine regulation are urgently addressed in the coming Finance Bill.

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