Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

My question relates to corporation tax rates. After the Brexit referendum, the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced plans to slash the UK corporation tax rate from 20% to below 15%. On BBC Radio Ulster on 5 July 2016, the Minister of Finance, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, referred to this in light of the plans by the Northern Ireland Executive to reduce the corporation tax rate in Northern Ireland to 12.5% by 2018. The Minister said, "I think he has put a horse and carriage through our policy." He then referred to the need to consider a different strategy involving reducing the corporation tax rate even further.

In this House, we often speak about the race to the bottom and Sinn Féin Deputies often raise their voices against it, but here we have a Sinn Féin finance minister positively embracing the race to the bottom, slavishly copying British Tory Party policy and promoting the notion of a bidding war whereby tax for multinational corporations would be slashed at a time when profits are sky high and public services are crying out for investment. Was this issue raised at the recent British-Irish Council and, if so, what was discussed? Will the Taoiseach give a commitment to the House that he will not enter into a bidding war of this type?

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