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

President Trump is a dangerous and pathological liar and I do not give any credence to those claims. Does it concern the Taoiseach that Ireland is now a watchword for corporate tax avoidance by big multinational companies and for the race to the bottom on corporate tax? President Trump is simply using the low effective rate - the 0% effective rate on big multinational companies like Apple - as an excuse to accelerate the race to the bottom on corporate tax in the US. Does that give the Taoiseach cause for concern about the sustainability of our economic model?

Has the Taoiseach considered and discussed the enormous and expanding hole in revenues resulting from the dramatic increase over recent years in the deductions and allowances that are given primarily to American multinationals? The Taoiseach might tell us whether he has read the Coffey report, which notes that tax deductions and allowances for the corporate sector have increased from €18.9 billion in 2003 to €97.0 billion in 2015. The amount of money involved in these loopholes has increased from €18 billion to €97 billion. That money could be going into our Exchequer, but instead it is going into the pockets of the multinationals that are benefitting from our pitifully low tax rate. Is the Taoiseach looking at the implications for our Exchequer, and indeed for the sustainability of this country's wider economic model, of the likely changes in the corporate tax regime in the United States?

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