Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister mentioned, the cost of this proposal to the State would be an additional €1.124 billion per annum and, obviously, that could increase depending on our gross operating surplus. It is a significant increase and I understand Ireland would be one of the highest contributors as a result of this mechanism. In his response, the Minister might outline the distributional impact and where Ireland would sit in the league table in respect of contributions to the budget if this proposal were to go ahead.

As the Minister said, it is targeting the gross operating surplus of the corporate sector. It is simply the case that the more profitable the member state’s private sector is, the higher the contribution will be to the budget. Thankfully, we have seen a large increase in our gross operating surplus. Back in 1995, it used to stand at €25 billion whereas it was nearly €300 billion in 2021.

Where does Ireland stand regarding the impact of this proposal and its distributional impact across member states. Does the Minister agree that is unprecedented? The reality is that it does not constitute an own resource mechanism but is potentially a pseudo-tax in all but name and, therefore, it runs contrary to what we are trying to achieve in the OECD base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, programme. Will he outline the strategy of the Government for the time ahead? Is it simply to use our veto? Where do we go from here?

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