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

The debate about the fiscal space is important in terms of knowing what we have available for public expenditure and investment. Regardless of what way one calculates it, however, there is not enough for housing, health, infrastructure investment and education. What will the Minister do about the myriad loopholes benefiting corporations, which we got a glimpse of with the Apple scandal, special purpose vehicles, SPVs, real estate investment trusts, REITs, and vulture funds? There is a host of tax expenditures which are not properly scrutinised and that result in very low, sometimes negligible, corporate tax payments by very profitable corporate interests. Is the Minister going to close some of those loopholes to increase the tax revenue available for public expenditure and investment?

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