Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As I am a trained historian, as is the Taoiseach, I hope he will recognise the role that my party, the Labour Party, has played in opening Ireland up to the investment of multinational corporations. The view has always been that this was an initiative of Seán Lemass and the late T. K. Whitaker, a good friend of mine from my alma mater in Drogheda, St. Joseph's CBS, but of course, it was William Norton, then Tánaiste and Minister for Industry and Commerce and leader of the Labour Party, who first opened Ireland up to investment and moved us away from the isolationist perspective. We owe a debt of gratitude to William Norton, and, indeed, those who followed, in terms of modernising our economy.

I stress a generous competitive corporation tax offering does not a national industrial strategy make. Of course, we have a considerable focus on the issue of corporation tax - that needs to be a minimum effective rate of corporation tax in the interest of fairness, decency and tax justice - but we also need to focus on the skills gaps that are emerging and the fact that, for example, we have one of the lowest levels of in-work training in the OECD, at 5.5%, as compared to Denmark, that is up at 33%. In the July stimulus under the national economic recovery plan, we need to focus on that, making sure that people are ready for the jobs of the future.

Finally, we need to be mindful of the advice from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, published today. It has drawn attention to the fact that the international corporation tax regime will change over the next few years. Ireland needs to lead that and work with the OECD. I was one of the Ministers in the mid-2010s who signed up to the OECD base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, process in the interests of tax justice and fairness. We need to be conscious and mindful that IFAC has stated there will be a diminution of corporation tax receipts over the next few years in the context of both the BEPS process and changes to the international corporation tax system. The people of this country are entitled to expect decent public services. We need to be able to pay for them with a tax system that is objectively fair to everybody, and by "fair", I mean that multinational corporations should pay their fair share, as well as the hardworking people of Ireland and small businesses across the country.

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