Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice to those supporting the Bill. As a member of the Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, I have met the stakeholders involved in this. Obviously, we want to continue creating a stable environment for these organisations so that they stay here and make a home in Ireland, in particular against the backdrop of Brexit and the uncertainty it brings. When any of these organisations consider a country such as Ireland, they seek business stability, political stability and environmental stability. Whatever we can do, we need to concretise that certainty.

I do not believe for a second the speculation that this gives companies more time to find ways to evade tax because, as was mentioned, if one is prudent about one's accounts, one will try to maximise one's potential as best one can within the law. We are a competitive nation regarding tax - we had to be. We were in the doldrums for years. We had to consider alternative ways of providing employment and educating our citizens. I feel very strongly about this, having worked in multinational organisations.

I ask the House to consider the period from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. In the small village where I am from, one person might have gone to university. These multinational organisations facilitated more people to go to university because it was seen as a benefit of the job to be educated through one's job, and these organisations paid for that education. These people went on to form domestic companies afterwards and became employers in their own right. We have seen this when travelling throughout the world. These people hold positions throughout the world and have experience in other, sister organisations. I ask the House to take Dell as an example. People went to Austin for five years, came back to Limerick, set up their own businesses or returned to work in Dell. There has been huge development in this regard and these companies have been huge education drivers. This is, therefore, much broader than just the economic side of things; it has a social implication as well.

I hear the words of the hard left on this and I understand it is an ideological view but I never hear how, if what the hard left suggests were to happen, the transition from one part to the other would happen. I have never heard anything about a transition in this regard. I understand I am ideologically poles apart from the hard left when it comes to this. We may have some similarities on social issues, but this is something I feel extremely strongly about. I ask the House to take Limerick, my own county, as an example. Since 2011, when we were in the depths of a recession, and since the previous Government came into office, the likes of Northern Trust has been increasing its workforce. There were wastelands with factories which have now been taken over. There is the likes of Regeneron, which has come in with 300 or 400 jobs. I was speaking to someone on Sunday about this. There is the likes of DesignPro in Rathkeale, a small town in the middle of County Limerick where my office is located. DesignPro employs up to 90 people. There is Ortec, which is coming to Newcastle West, one of the major towns of County Limerick. Ortec is providing 110 jobs. These people have to make a living. The 100 cars outside at night were mentioned. This is what will keep us going. This is what sustainability means. This is what we are talking about. The bottom line is jobs, and this is an area in which we can compete extremely well and one in which we need to continue competing.

I do not want the word to go out to the wider world that there is some kind of witch-hunt going on with these companies. We want to keep them here. They provide employment and education through their benefits, and the innovation side of these companies is driving education as well. I am delighted to support the Bill.

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