Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We do not meet any of the international standards for being considered a tax haven. We are fully compliant with all the best practices in the areas of transparency and exchange of information. We have and want real substantive foreign direct investment, the kind that brings real jobs and investment into the country and the wider community. The Oxfam report includes Ireland's 12.5% rate as one of the factors in saying that this country is a tax haven. I reject that and strongly refute this characterisation of our tax rate. The 12.5% is fully in line with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, and international best practice in having a low rate and applying it to a very wide tax base. The 12.5% rate is available only on trading profits where there is a substantial activity in Ireland and our corporate tax policies are designed to attract real and substantive operations to Ireland. We have not been and never will be a brass plate location. The Deputy is aware that we got rid of the stateless and the "double Irish" concepts. This is the first country to have a fully OECD compliant knowledge box which is available to make our country continue to be attractive for investment in the future.

The Oxfam report mentions Ireland in the context of profit-shifting activities. We have been clear that we believe that aggressive tax planning can be best countered by international tax reform and have been at the forefront of that movement for some time. We are an active participant in the global work to reform the international corporate tax system. We have implemented country by country reporting. We have agreed the anti-tax avoidance directive and are working towards the implementation of the remaining elements of the OECD base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, recommendations domestically and internationally. On budget day the Minister for Finance published an update on Ireland's international tax strategy which highlights our continuing efforts in this regard. I completely refute allegations of Ireland being a tax haven.

The Deputy mentioned having a forum for tax justice, we will hold a major economic forum in Dublin in January. Perhaps it would be appropriate to build an opportunity for that kind of discussion around that time and I will communicate with Deputy O'Sullivan on that issue.

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