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

Let us be absolutely clear: we want jobs, if there are decent well-paid jobs, from wherever they might come. However, those companies making astronomical profits should pay a fair share in taxes. The Minister has yet again quoted figures to do with effective rates and so on. I will put some figures to the Minister. In 2015 the figure for gross trading profits plus other income equalled €161 billion. The tax paid in that period was €6.2 billion. That is an effective rate of less than 4%. In fact, it is approximately 3.9%. That is not 12.5; it is 3.9%. If the Government charged 12.5% on that, it would get €20 billion. That is what is at stake.

We were more modest than that in our pre-budget submission. We simply said that we should close the loopholes to the extent that we would double corporate tax revenue for the Exchequer. That would only bring the minimum effective rate up to 8%. That is modest. The Government could do that even if it had no wish to go as far as we might want to go in terms of taxing these corporations. Why would the Government not do that when everyone knows that these companies are avoiding tax? Why would the Government not close the loopholes to ensure that these companies pay more? All the evidence points to the fact that we facilitate these companies with loopholes.

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