Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We are not talking about people who are reasonably well-off. We are talking about very wealthy people. They are the ones with the resources to engage the expertise that can allow them to put their money out of reach. One must ask who is writing the laws and where the influence is because the very idea that one can say that much of this is not illegal is really very offensive. There is no doubt that there are insiders who are getting an ear and laws have been written in their favour. We must recognise that because if it can be said that they are not doing anything illegal and massive tax planning is taking place, a small number of very big accounting and law firms are assisting this. Keeping up with it is almost an industry in itself.

One could not talk about this without referencing the Apple tax case. The amount of money Apple has been adjudicated to owe is about 5% of what it has in the bank. It certainly will not break Apple. I find it extraordinary that such efforts are being made to challenge the European direction on this, particularly when we have such a generous tax rate and the corporate sector is treated well with a significant number of companies paying well below the 12.5%. A number of accounting firms acted for the banks that crashed. They are still routinely wheeled out as though they were paragons of virtue and are asked to do quite a lot of business on behalf of the Government. I question why this is the case when they have a record that has caused us very serious problems and are actively engaged on the other side in assisting people to reduce their taxes to the point where the economy is being challenged in terms of the amount that is required to be spent on housing, infrastructure and the health service.

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