Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I just cannot resist it really. When people tell porkies like that it is just too difficult to not respond. It is extraordinary that €103 billion in gross profits results in total tax paid of €4.9 billion. That is not 12.5%. The figure of €4.9 billion tax on €103 billion is 4.75% on gross profits and other earnings. That is the real effective corporate tax rate and a very significant component of this is the losses brought forward by the banks that the people bailed out. This allows them to avoid paying tax for years to come. It is shocking and it is money that is desperately and urgently needed. I hear the Government state it does not have money for this, that and the other and only has a €600 million fiscal space. I just feel like screaming as I look at the allowances and deductions given to the corporate vampires. These are the banks that brought the State to its knees and which we bailed out. We are now giving massive tax breaks to them. It is shocking. The problem with a lot of this stuff is that some of it is so technical I am not sure of the extent to which the public understands the scale. I certainly intend to make it my mission, as we have tried in the past five years, to explain the rip off to people. It is one of many rip offs and we will discuss more of them as we debate further this evening.

Through massive bailouts and huge austerity measures we have nursed these banks back to health and profitability and now they are paying virtually no tax and the Government is probably going to sell them off. It has already sold off most of Bank of Ireland and at some point, it intends to sell off the rest of the banks. When the banks finally start to make money, the State will get nothing or very little back from them. It is one of many tax scandals in this State but the very least we could do is what is being asked for in this motion.

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