Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the west of Ireland, especially in my own county of Mayo, we are very pleased to have many multinational companies. Allergan, Botox, Baxter and Coca-Cola are all creating very valuable jobs for the community of County Mayo and for Ireland. What worries me is many of these companies would not have invested in rural Ireland if not for the 12.5% corporation tax rate. I hope these companies will not be affected in any way. I know many people who have been working with these companies for over 30 years. They are well paid, well looked after and well respected. They raised their families and put them through college. The only criticism I have of some of these multinational companies is that I would like to see them giving more to communities, in particular. They should put more money into sport, into the Tidy Towns initiative and into working with communities and helping them because they are getting a good dividend out of the tremendous workforce we have.

I remind the Minister and the Government that I would like to see more multinational companies. We have plenty of space for them in rural Ireland. We have plenty of workers for them in rural Ireland. We have a great quality of life for them in rural Ireland. It is fine for Deputies to get up here and talk about the social value and multinational companies. If they do not operate in Ireland they will operate someplace else and I want them to stay in Ireland. I want them to stay and employ the people we have and see them employing more people in Ireland. The more people they employ, the more people and families that can stay. We have enough Mayo people in New York, in Chicago and in Australia. We want to keep as many families as possible working and living in County Mayo. The Minister should let these multinational companies pay their taxes and pay whatever they must pay. It is not a bad word.

There is nothing wrong with profit. There is nothing wrong with people making a euro or a pound. I have worked all my life. I came from a big family of 13 and we learned from the very first day that you had to work. You had to earn what you had to earn and we were damn glad to get any job we could get. We were damn glad to be able to ensure the system was there to protect us when we got sick. We were damn glad to see that under the system that was there, the people who were employing us paid our PRSI and we made our contribution towards it. When we needed that as people came to pension age, it was there for them. Multinational companies are not all a bad word. We have some fantastic companies in the west of Ireland and as I have said, long may they stay. I hope more and more multinational companies will come in and we can get more tax from them because the more we get, the more people will stay and the more services we will be able to provide in this country.

I wanted to say that today because we are very lucky in County Mayo to have a number of multinational companies that are creating employment. It is about keeping jobs, keeping people employed and stopping them from emigrating. There are parties in this country that do not want people working and doing well. They prefer to see them on the ground because they can gain from that. I am not one of those people. I am somebody who wants to support people, help them, bring them on, create jobs for them, give their families an opportunity and let them go to college so they can do well.

It is similar to what I said about emigration. When the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, goes all over the world, he meets people from Donegal, Mayo and Kerry who have the best jobs and are working for the biggest companies. They are proud to be Irish and to promote Ireland. Many of these multinational companies would not have come to this country but for our Irish citizens who had to emigrate because there were no jobs in Ireland for them. I am glad these companies are here and I hope that we get many more. All I can say is that Botox, Allergan, Baxter, Coca-Cola and McHale's of Ballinrobe are all multinational companies. They are not all foreign investment companies. Some of them were created in Ireland and are owned by Irish people. All of them pay their taxes in Ireland and create jobs for Irish people and those who come to the country.

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