Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The headlines read "Ireland wins appeal in €13 billion Apple tax case". It is some victory when one of the richest corporations in the world gets to hang on to €14.1 billion and add it to a cash pile of over $100 billion. That money is not available to tackle the problems that exist here, where one in four people is unemployed, 10,000 people are homeless and we need urgently to invest to avoid climate catastrophe. It raises the question of which Ireland has won. Who does the Government represent? This brings to mind an article by James Connolly from 1899, called "Let Us Free Ireland!", where he writes: "Let us free Ireland! Never mind such base, carnal thoughts as concern work and wages, healthy homes, or lives unclouded by poverty". He goes on to talk about the rack-renting landlord and the profit-grinding capitalist. It is their Ireland that has won this court case and the profit-grinding capitalists in this case are Apple and the other multinationals that use Ireland as a tax haven. This is a victory for the political establishment that wants to continue to use Ireland as a tax haven regime. It is utterly immoral due to the robbery of some of the poorest countries in the world and those who live in them and it is utterly unsustainable because one cannot win a race to the bottom. The only winners are the corporations that do not have to pay any tax.

As Deputy Barry pointed out,the judgment does not say that Ireland is not a tax haven or that it was not crazy that Apple could benefit from a tax rate of 0.005%. It just says that that treatment was available to all multinationals. The Minister for Finance has stated that what we have is equality of treatment for all taxpayers. I am sure many workers will be knocking on Revenue's door tomorrow asking if they can please have a tax rate of 0.005% too. It proves Connolly's point that "governments in capitalist society are but committees [for] the rich". We need to clear them out and fight for a socialist green new deal and a Government that acts in the interests of working-class people, ends this race to the bottom, ends our tax haven status and develops a socialist industrial policy based on democratic public ownership and control.

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