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

We were discussing an amendment where we propose to deal with the enormous loopholes being exploited by a small number of multinational companies to avoid tax by having a report produced on these loopholes, with the intent of closing them. That would give the people in this country billions of euro for housing, health and education, which we need so badly. The report would examine how a minimum effective tax rate of 12.5% should be imposed. It is currently not being imposed and this allows corporations like Apple to pay less than 1% in tax on billions of euro in profit. The average tax rate is not the 12.5% claimed by the Government but approximately 4%. If we had a minimum effective corporate tax rate that companies had to pay before any of these loopholes kicked in, we could raise at least another €6 billion or €7 billion in revenue, which would transform the lives of Irish citizens.

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