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

I met the Polish Prime Minister who confirmed that the views expressed by the Polish Foreign Minister were not the views of the Polish Government, and that the foreign Minister had been trying to find a solution to the impasse we now face. Ireland and Poland are much closer on Brexit than some people may believe. Poland is very close to the UK and they have a very strong security relationship through NATO. There are also many Polish citizens living in the UK. Like us, they want the new relationship between the UK and the EU to be as close as possible after Brexit. Their efforts to be helpful to the UK come from that desire rather than any lack of solidarity with Ireland.

We have complete solidarity from all the other Prime Ministers whom I had the opportunity to meet in Davos. There is a growing concern about what will happen at the end of March and a growing desire to find solutions because no one wants to be the situation whereby Europe fails to find a solution to this at the end of March and into the period thereafter.

International corporate tax law is a matter that arises at many international meetings. It featured less at Davos this year than last year, probably because we are participating in the OECD base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, process. The OECD does not designate Ireland as a tax haven. We are not on the EU's grey list of tax havens and "everyone in the world", as Deputy Boyd Barrett put it, does not include the European Union or the OECD, which is the expert body in this matter.

The Deputy's "everyone" does not include the two most relevant bodies in this regard, and it was probably less of a feature, in fact, this year precisely because we have collected the Apple tax claim in an escrow account and are now awaiting a judgment on that, we have abolished stateless corporations, we are phasing out the double Irish arrangement, and we are now one of the few countries that share revenue information with other revenue services so that we can compare how much tax different companies pay in different states.

It is very much our view that profit taxes should be applied where the profits are created. One applies a sales tax or VAT at the point of sale. One applies a profit tax where the profits are generated, and that is one of our objections to the proposed digital tax. Volkswagens are sold all over Europe, but the profit tax is paid in Germany. It does not get divvied out across the European Union. Airbuses are made in France and the profit is made in France, but they are sold all over the EU, and we do not get a cut of the profit taxes because Ryanair buys Airbus or because leasing companies buy Airbus. The profits are paid where the company is based and generates those profits, not where the sales are made.

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