Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One is not being unpatriotic if one raises issues regarding how this State of ours is allowing multinational corporations to use it as their next tax loophole. One is not being unpatriotic when pointing out, time and again, that the State is facilitating tax avoidance. Perhaps the Minister has reasons to do that; I am sure he does. My point is not just about what the two Deputies have talked about in respect of their amendment, about which there is nothing to fear. The thinking I am referring to is littered throughout the Finance Bill. The Minister will offer various justifications for this. I am sure the Government side will vote down the amendment on the banks, and the banks will continue to fail to pay tax. We will consider issues concerning non-bank lending and section 110 provisions. Again, there will be a shutdown in this regard. We referred to the REITs paying tax at an effective rate of only 3%. There are funds that pay no capital gains tax. There was the tax advantage that was introduced and that the Minister has just closed down, but it is to be allowed to continue for another year. All of these mechanisms provide considerable opportunities for those in charge of international capital to exploit the tax system. The Minister is handing them opportunities on a plate. This results in commentary such as that of the Comptroller and Auditor General, who talked last month about 13 of the top 100 companies in the State paying tax at an effective rate of less than 1%. This was not said by a member of Sinn Féin or Solidarity-People Before Profit; it was said by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

In earlier contributions, we heard a lot about millions and billions of euros. I do not know how many of these points have been absorbed at 11.30 p.m. We know from the Paradise Papers, however, that this island is in the middle of an international tax avoidance storm or scam. We had the Panama Papers before them. There was a response to those but it was nowhere near enough in regard to dealing with this issue.

I am open to correction but I have serious suspicions that when the tax residency issue concerning stateless companies was dealt with by the Government as a result of serious international pressure and pressure from my party it - and the Administration that preceded it, whose Minister for Finance was Deputy Noonan - deliberately, on foot of lobbying by multinational companies and tax advisers, including the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, increased the rate. The Government knew there would be onshoring of IP because that is what was stated in black and white in the submissions made to it. Those concerned sought certainty in respect of how intangible assets would be dealt with. The Government increased the rate to 100%. I simply refuse to believe that this was not some type of cosy deal with Apple in mind. The Commission will consider this case, as it has the other.

I asked the Taoiseach yesterday about this case but he did not answer. It is my understanding that the Apple case will be heard in 2018. I would like the Minister to confirm whether it will be heard by the European courts in 2018. Have they notified the Department about this? It is also my view that Apple will not be the only company involved. Google will be involved. We will wait to see how the Amazon appeal bears out in terms of Luxembourg but I have no doubt that Google is in the cross-hairs. Pepsi and Pfizer will also come into scope. We can shake our heads at the Commission and say it is infringing on sovereignty but that is nonsense because we know that state-aid approval is associated with tax measures. In this regard, the Minister mentioned earlier the taxation for the gyms and crèches in terms of state-aid approval. Tax is a state-aid issue in certain regards. We are allowing this to happen.

A vote was nearly lost in the German Parliament because almost 300 MPs there believe we are operating some type of tax avoidance scam or tax haven. Therefore, it is time to clean up our act and have these issues dealt with. The single malt is not something that just appeared out of thin air. We have been raising this for a considerable period. Mr. Matt Carthy, one of my party's MEPs, has been raising this in the European Parliament. He put it directly to the Minister for Finance when there was a claim that the double Irish was closed down. The double Irish was closed down but there is a tail period. Even in that scenario, one can still operate the same type of system because of jurisdictions with no double tax treaties. Malta is one but it is not the only one. There are many of those types of cases so we need to tackle tax evasion aggressively.

Yesterday, we heard - I am not sure if it was from the Minister - that more attention would be paid to the issue of the single malt and that the only problem is that it is out of our control. It is the exact same script that we heard about the double Irish. It is the exact same script we heard in respect of stateless companies. Of course, they play off the tax systems in two jurisdictions but any jurisdiction can change its tax system and close a loophole. We need to be careful that we are not deliberately or unintentionally opening another loophole. As I stated, there is nothing unpatriotic or anti-jobs about closing down tax loopholes or producing a report on this.

I do not support the views of the two Deputies on raising corporation tax because I believe they are missing the point. However, this amendment gets to the point. It is not about the 12.5% rate. Jesus, if some of the companies in question were paying at a rate of 12.5%, we would be building schools, hospitals and houses for our citizens. The country would be awash with money. The companies are not paying at a rate of 12.5%; they are not even paying near that. As the Comptroller and Auditor General said, some are paying less than 1%. Thirteen of the top 100 companies are in this category.

This is a sensible amendment. It gets to the real nugget of what is done. We need a Government to stand up and say we are taking it no more. The international view will change also. As was said before, some companies are considering green energy that is environmentally friendly. The mood is changing and we need to be a leader so we will no longer pimp out our country to the next multinational that wants to exploit it for tax reasons.

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