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

My view is that large, wealthy tech companies should pay their fair share of tax and pay that tax where it is owed. We have a profound difficulty with the EU's current proposal for a digital tax because, rather than taxing profits, it taxes turnover or revenue. At present, companies, many of them big tech companies, record profits in Ireland and we gain from this in the form of a 12.5% corporation profit tax, which is now bringing in billions of euro in revenue to allow us to fund our public services, improve our public infrastructure and tackle issues such as climate change.

If we move to the model the European Commission is proposing, the levy would be on the turnover. The money would then go to the big countries, such as France and Germany, where many people are using those services. Less profit will be recorded in Ireland and we will get less revenue. Rather than funding the media, as the Deputy suggested, there will be less revenue for Ireland and that would mean having to cut back public spending.

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