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

The issue of global multinational corporations avoiding tax by shifting profits from where they are actually generated to other jurisdictions where they can through complex means avoid paying tax is arguably the major contributory factor to staggering levels of inequality globally that are galloping away in their obscenity.

9 o’clock

Year after year, the gap between the wealth of a tiny minority and the need and often intense poverty of the huge numbers of people just grows and grows.

It says everything about that process that these debates, during which the nuts and bolts of all of this are discussed, are watched by nobody, listened to by nobody, covered by no media outlets and are too obscure and complex for most people to get their heads around. Yet, in that obscure late-night detail is the real devil that is responsible for obscene and staggering levels of inequality and, ultimately, poverty and deprivation, particularly in the developing world.

This multilateral treaty is, on the face of it, a good thing. It is trying to address some of the mechanisms through which these corporations shift their profits and close down those mechanisms and loopholes. However, of course, true to form, on one of the key articles of this treaty which might help to do that, the Government wants to opt out. It asks us to believe that we need clarity. On what exactly does it need clarity? Although I have not had time to look at the new nuts and bolts of all of this, I was chatting to Sorley McCaughey of Christian Aid and he was convincing in explaining how our decision to opt out of Article 12 leaves the door open to this kind of profit shifting continuing and to us essentially engaging in the sort of tax piracy we were very familiar with and that we engaged in with the double Irish and that continues with the Irish malt. This is an effort to close it down yet we decide to opt out of that article.

The Minister of State asks us to believe the Government is going to seriously look into it, will consider it and perhaps ratify it down the road. I am sorry but the Government has no credibility on the issue of tackling corporate tax evasion. It was forced under pressure to get rid of the double Irish but, as soon as the pressure became irresistible, it opened up new windows, specifically on the issue of intangible assets, where it increased the tax relief to 100%. Lo and behold, all of the multinationals that had benefitted from the double Irish onshored all their intangible assets and, as a result, avoided paying hundreds of millions euro in tax, which even Mr. Seamus Coffey said should not have been done. That was deliberate. There is no doubt in my mind that was worked out between the Government and the multinationals to ensure they escaped the noose that was tightening on them and that a new loophole was created. Do I trust the Government on this? Absolutely not. In broad terms, this treaty is a good thing so we have to support it because it is pushing in the right direction. However, it says everything that the Government wants to opt out of one of the articles.

While I may not have time to stick around for the debate on Ghana, it deals with the same issue. In theory, a double taxation treaty should be a good thing in that it makes sure there is not double taxation, but it also has to make sure there is not double non-taxation and, in particular, that we are not implicated in robbing tax revenue from countries like Ghana. Ghana is a poor country where there are 4 million children living in poverty, where a significant proportion of the population suffers extreme deprivation and where the collection of tax is a problem precisely because of multinationals filtering profits out and not having them taxed in that regime. We again are not putting in the provisions that would ensure this cannot be done in the taxation treaty with Ghana. Tax haven Ireland sails on, although some of us are trying to watch it and ring the alarm bells.

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