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

I accept Deputy Joan Burton's point about minimum effective rates of income tax, but the argument we were making which was not supported by the Government in which she was involved in the previous five years was in favour of having a minimum effective rate of corporation tax. She was in government but did not implement such a measure. I am glad that she is now echoing the point. This mechanism, whereby profitable enterprises such as banks which account for a huge proportion of these activities write down their taxable income, points to the need for us to impose a minimum effective rate of 12.5%. I agree with her amendment and with that of Deputy Pearse Doherty. I also agree with Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly's point that the very least the Minister could do is accept it in order that we could get the facts and the public would have something to enable them to understand what was going on. There are huge amounts of money involved and the public deserves to know and make informed decisions on what they want to do with the rate of corporation tax.

See this speech in context