Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had a chance to read the World Economic Forum report on inclusive economic development last night in advance of my visit to Davos today. As is always the case with a report, it is possible to pick out negatives and positives. However, this report is very positive about Ireland and it is worth recording some of the items it contains. In terms of inclusive economic development, Ireland ranks eighth out of 30 in the world. We have risen from 12th to eighth. We are already ahead of Britain, France, Australia, Germany and Canada and if we continue on this path, we will overtake Sweden and the Netherlands in the next couple of years. It is important to put that on the record because we often do not get a reasonable outing for reports like this.

The report also points out that Ireland generates a strong performance in growth and development in intergenerational equity and that we benefit from a high gross domestic product, GDP, per capita, being fourth in our peer group and second highest in labour productivity.

It also notes how public debt has been reduced drastically, by 43%, over the past five years, which is the largest improvement of any advanced economy. It certainly identifies wealth inequality and income inequality, but as Members will know from the survey on income and living conditions, income inequality in Ireland is actually narrowing. It has gone down for two years in a row, as have poverty and deprivation rates. It is important that we all acknowledge those facts. The report draws particular attention to rising wealth inequality, much of which is related to the bounce-back in asset prices, rising home values, the recovery of pension funds, businesses gaining value, and the fact that more people are able to save more. There are often reasons behind these things.

In terms of tax avoidance, this Government is absolutely committed to country by country reporting. We have already signed up for that. It means that this year, for the first time, the Revenue Commissioners will share tax information with revenue commissioners in other countries. Until now that information has been confidential, so we did not know how much different companies paid in different countries. We have signed up to country by country reporting so that we will be able to compare notes with other revenue authorities and see if companies are paying their taxes in different countries. We have already eliminated the possibility of companies being stateless. We have removed the double Irish, and we are absolutely open to other measures which will reduce or help to crack down on tax evading and tax avoidance. A public consultation on that issue is under way at present on foot of the very detailed Coffey report which was published only a few months ago.

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