Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is about tax, tax owed by whom, where it was to be owed and who it was to be paid to. There have been a lot of conversations in the past within the legislature in the US about a repatriation holiday for tax. It is not spoken about but it has gone before the Senate and the House of Representatives on a number of occasions and has been defeated. There are trillions of stateless dollars off shore of the United States. We are absolutely not going to become - nor should we - some version of a collector general for Europe for taxation. Tim Cook, in his interview with RTE, said that Apple has made provisions to repatriate those funds. There are billions on deposit to pay their tax when they enter the US. Speaker Paul Ryan, former vice presidential candidate for the Republican Party said, "Above all, this is yet another reason why we need to fix our tax code... Today's decision by the European Commission should be a spur to action." According to Adam Halpern, a top tax lawyer at Fenwick & West, "For now, that may be little solace for Apple and its U.S. rivals. The revelation that a regulator can impose higher tax bills retroactively - even though they were legal according to national laws - will top companies' list of concerns." He said, "You thought you understood what your risk profile was in terms of tax, and then a regional non-government agency comes in and tells you to pay more." That is the big problem for foreign direct investment companies. We have removed the certainty that a company can obey the law of the land and not have a retroactive bill thrown at it. The EU is picking on Ireland. The question is around what the Commission has determined was the legality of the Irish Revenue Commissioners' ruling. That was the prior opinion. This will be determined by the ECJ. What is legal is for the ECJ to determine not the European Commission. The ECJ has overturned many decisions by the Commission.

I want to correct the Taoiseach today. He said that in regard to the OECD's BEPS process Ireland was one of the first movers. Ireland was not one of the first movers; we were the first mover. That happened at budget 2014. Prior to the publication of the final report by the OECD on the base erosion and profit shifting we changed our tax structure before anybody else. I remind the House that there are countries within the OECD that have still not changed the tax structure in line with the BEPS project. I have a real issue with this with the European Commission. This is what I describe as the foot in the door on taxation. I am speaking as somebody who is pro-Europe. Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, said following the Brexit vote that we must pause the integration of the European project. I agree with President Tusk. The ruling of Commissioner Vestager has the potential to do further damage to Europe at a time when Europe has been already damaged. We have anti-EU Alternative für Deutschland coming second in local elections in Germany. We have Norbert Hofer, an anti-EU candidate, on the verge of winning a presidential election in Austria. We have Marine Le Pen of the National Front in France promising a referendum on EU membership. Has the European Commission learned nothing from the Brexit vote?

I want to look at the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are directly impacted by foreign direct investment. The personal tax receipts in this State are now the largest source of income for the Government at 40% of the total collected. There are 6,000 people employed by Apple and if they can average €75,000 per year, it is almost €9 million a week into the Cork economy. Anybody who could put that at risk must be out of their mind. If these jobs are lost to Cork it could destroy the Cork economy. I have seen a figure that companies attached to FDIs are responsible for 50% of PAYE returns. These are not minimum wage jobs. The Commission's attack on Ireland is a land grab. It is dishonest, deceitful and just plain crooked. We have been in their sight for years. As long as there have been taxes there have been tax advisers. In a globalised world multinational corporate tax can only be dealt with in an integrated, coherent, international way. We are the meat in the EU-US sandwich. We have to ensure we do not get gobbled up.

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