Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the heart of today’s debate is the very simple issue of tax justice. For decades a small number of very large global corporations have been engaged in aggressive tax practices. They have used their financial power to force countries into a race to the bottom. These companies have demanded ever lower tax bills and governments, large and small, have acquiesced. Governments have allowed some of the world’s most profitable companies to avoid paying any tax on billions and billions of euro.

Earlier today the Taoiseach and Deputy Micheál Martin sought to defend this way of doing business. They claimed that it was good for jobs, tax revenues and public services. They are simply wrong. There is a huge human cost to the aggressive tax practices of companies such as Apple. The biggest losers are the developing world countries. In a recent report, Christian Aid has estimated that poor countries lose more than $160 billion in forgone tax revenue annually. This is more than one and a half times the total global development aid budget to these same countries. Christian Aid has also estimated that the human cost of this legal tax avoidance is the deaths of 1,000 children in the developing world every single day. Closer to home, EUROSTAT has calculated the annual cost of tax revenue from legal tax avoidance is €190 billion annually. The €13 billion owed to the State by Apple is just the tip of the iceberg. We see the cost all around us: families living in hotel rooms, loved ones lying on hospital trolleys, children in overcrowded classrooms and hundreds of thousands of people unemployed or in precarious low paid work.

Did Apple get a sweetheart deal from the Irish Government? Yes, it did. We know because Apple has admitted this on the record. As far back as 2013 whistleblowers from the Revenue Commissioners have confirmed this in reports in Irish newspapers. Is the European Commission doing the right thing to call Ireland out on this? Yes, it is. The Government should not appeal the ruling and it should join the fight for tax justice at home and globally. The Government should collect the taxes that are now due and invest the funds in social and economic development. By doing this the Government should send a very clear signal that every person and every company, no matter how rich or powerful, pays their fair share. That is what is meant by tax justice.

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