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

The Deputy is a former trade union negotiator and he understands negotiations, as do I. It is deeply unhelpful when someone on one's side - we were team Ireland on an issue like this - makes concessions on one's behalf. It is exactly the same thing for a shop steward or trade union official going in to negotiate with an employer and somebody from his or her team starts making concessions before they are agreed. It is deeply unhelpful and it was damaging. That is my assessment of the situation and I stand over it. That is if the Deputy sees himself as being part of team Ireland.

There will be a Cabinet meeting this afternoon at which we will discuss this matter. No decision has yet been made. Our existing projections are that any change of this nature will reduce our revenue by approximately €2 billion a year, but that is only an estimate. Nobody can know that for sure. It is based on certain assumptions that may or may not be correct and may well be updated. I do not know if there will be any financials published today but I will get back to the Deputy on that.

Our 12.5% corporate profit tax has been a huge success. It is a really important part of our industrial policy and has, not entire but strong, cross-party support in this House. More than a quarter of a million people work in multinational companies in Ireland. We want to keep those jobs and the 100,000 or so indirect jobs that arise from the direct employment.

We take in approximately €12 billion a year in corporation profit tax. That is roughly double what the average European country takes in on a per head basis and it is evidence that in a world where capital, labour, talent, investment and money are mobile, lower taxes can mean higher revenues. It is proof positive of that.

What we have always tried to maintain are two things - competitiveness and certainty. Competitiveness in knowing that our rate will be substantially lower than that of our competitors, and certainty, so that we can say to companies thinking of making a 30-year investment in Ireland and employing tens of thousands of people that the rate will not change even if the Government or the economic cycle changes. That is something we have to consider today because if we agree to a new global minimum rate, there is the advantage of no country being able to undercut us. Some countries have actually undercut us in recent years and that is something we would avoid if we were to sign up to a global minimum rate.

In terms of our concerns, they relate to the issue of the rate being "at least" the relevant figure. We want to make sure that whatever rate is agreed is certain and will not ratchet up over time. There is the issue relating to SMEs and mid-caps. We want to ensure that for smaller and middle-sized companies we can continue to charge the lower rate of 12.5%. We want to make sure that our research and development tax credit is protected. We also want to make sure that if countries sign up to this, they actually implement it. We do not want to be the country to implement it but for our competitors then not to do so. That would be a disadvantage to us. Those are the issues that are currently in play.

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