Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We can snigger about this all right but I am not so sure we fully appreciate the significance of what is intended. I attended a meeting in Brussels approximately six or seven years ago during the darkest days, when there were seriously envious eyes cast upon our taxation system, although we were financially broke at the time. There were people who sought to take advantage of that weakness by moving in on us. As it transpired, that move never happened but they have come around again, deciding that somehow and somewhere, somebody can now tell us the European Commission has the right to dictate our tax policy on corporation or any other tax. The time has come to tell them "I am sorry about that, guys, but you are wrong and offside".

The Commission knew full well what it was doing and the intention is to isolate countries like Ireland and establish a power that the Commission does not possess. There are two or three ways to go about this. We can knuckle down. This is the iron fist clad in a crock of gold. This is something we can never collect, as is well recognised by the Commission. It has come out to say that other countries could have a claim on this. Of course, if the profits were earned in other countries, we can hardly expect them to say they will give the money to the Irish. It is a con job and intended as such. It was intended to be a sweetener so we would grab it and, unfortunately, many of our people have grabbed at this mirage. They have said that of course we would like it and do many things with €11 billion, if we could get it. We should not allow ourselves to be press-ganged into a position whereby we would accept this.

I am amazed that the 28 Commissioners sitting around the table agreed to this. That should never have happened. At a fragile time for the European Union, there is a re-emergence of a type of nationalism we have not seen in a long time. We know what the consequences were in the past when there was such a manifestation of nationalism throughout Europe. If the Commission persists in this direction, and the indications are that it will, either it will be discredited or the member states will be seriously disadvantaged as a result of the its decisions. If nothing is done to stop or challenge the Commission in this mad race, member states will have a problem. Not only that but the European Union as an entity will have a problem.

Not only do I strongly support the need for an appeal but there should be no doubt in anybody's mind about this. Multinational corporations seeking to invest in any country seek tax stability. It is what they request. They want to know the rate of tax and how it will affect them before they proceed. If we remove this from the arena and say it depends on what the President of the Commission thinks at a particular time, we will have a problem. We do not live in the middle of Europe; we live on the fringe. We need all we have to try to do the best we can in a highly competitive market, so we should proceed on that basis.

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