Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill. I wish to highlight some issues relating to the changing landscape of financial services and taxation that we are likely to see arise in a post-Brexit Europe. Although the Bill is sorely needed, it is something of a missed opportunity to implement more robust measures in the sector of financial services and taxation. In all the current uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the negotiations, there is one thing of which we can be sure - Brexit will result in change. Of course, it will result in change in our relationship with our closest neighbour, but it will also result in change in the balance of relationships with the rest of our European colleagues and the global community.

The drivers of Brexit may seem nebulous and obscure, such as a sense of exceptionalism that finds a voice in patriotic bluster and a feeling of dissatisfaction with the status quo. The social reasons for Brexit may be various, but there is a definite and identifiable underbelly to it which is about deregulation of the provision of goods and services, a loosening of constraints in the financial services sector and, possibly, a repudiation of the global move towards data protection.

In the context of taxation, I suspect Ireland will soon have to choose whose side we are on. Do we align ourselves with our partners in the project of a Single Market and a shared vision of Europe or do we continue down our current path as a place of accommodating tax measures for the largest global companies and their profits? In October, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child announced that it was going to examine Ireland's tax policies to see whether they are negatively damaging the rights of children around the globe and particularly in developing countries. The argument of the committee is that the law in Ireland is enabling profits to be shifted from countries in the developing world and devastating those countries' ability to raise revenue, fund essential public services and fulfil their human rights obligations. A recent working paper by the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research identified Ireland as the number one profit-shifting destination, accounting for more than $100 billion. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges Ireland to avoid policies at home and abroad that undermine the human rights of children. This will be the first time the UN has examined the external impact on children of a country's tax policy. The fact that it is starting with Ireland is testament to how we are already being viewed internationally.

Is this how we want to be seen in a post-Brexit world, with a large and increasingly deregulated financial market at our shoulder, as a tax haven and a facilitator of tax injustice that damages children and communities in the most vulnerable places in the world?

I am aware of the argument that Ireland is engaging with ongoing reforms at the OECD and through the base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, framework. Ireland has engaged with BEPS and, crucially, it has opted out of the key provision, Action 12 of the multilateral instruments, which would have put an end to one of the most commonly used avoidance practices by US multinationals in Ireland. If we truly want to reach out to our European neighbours and align ourselves with them and the global community, we could engage in this process in a more genuine manner. Due to Brexit, we must amend our taxation law in significant ways, as this Bill demonstrates. Now is the time. Ireland must align taxable profits more closely with economic activity and prevent multinationals from exploiting our laws to reduce their tax bills. As outlined by a number of NGOs in Ireland, it is obvious that without a fair and functioning taxation system the efforts of other countries to deliver adequate housing, healthcare and education and to tackle poverty, child poverty and inequality are badly undermined by Ireland.

We must act as responsible members of the international community and ensure that our tax policies do not negatively affect the realisation of children's rights around the globe. With our nearest neighbour about to embark on a unique path towards economic isolation, I urge the Government to move decisively towards international solidarity with Europe and developing nations, solidarity on taxation and tax justice and to reform our current laws to reflect that.

See this speech in context