Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies. Starting with Deputy Barry, the opening of our economy since 1958, the role of foreign direct investment, FDI, in Ireland and our relationship with the Single Market has been a huge success. It has led to an extraordinary transformation in living standards in our country. If the period up to 1958 and the early 1960s showed that an inward-looking model of investment and employment could not work for our economy and was going to lead to living standards that would not meet the needs of our society, then surely the last number of decades have shown that, despite the many challenges we have, an open economic model, being open to international investment and helping Irish companies to grow in a global economy and in the European Single Market has been a great economic success for our country and a massively positive economic development.

Turning to Deputy Boyd Barrett, some of the companies I believe he is referring to have been in Ireland for decades. Even with the risks which exist and are growing, there is every possibility they will still be here for decades to come. I always think the Deputy has a sense that they are ready to flee. I guess he would argue that I am arguing that changes in taxation may increase this risk even further. The reality, however, is that many of the companies the Deputy is referring to, and of which he is critical, have been in this State for decades and have played a role in employing so many tens of thousands of people over many years. I argue that these companies have been, and will continue to be, a strong and important pillar in our economy.

On the points made by Deputy Whitmore, we have in the annual tax report from the Department of Finance exhaustively covered off corporate tax vulnerabilities in great detail for many years. There is not a publication from my Department about the overall structure and performance of our economy that does not include a significant focus on the corporate tax issue. There have been a large number of publications from my Department, as well as a great deal of commentary, including from me, in this regard over many years. Whatever the limitations of our debate, a lack of reports on this issue is not one of them. We are acting on them in the form of the surplus and by setting up the National Reserve Fund.

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