Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I will have to read that reply again as it got very convoluted. I will read it in detail because I want to come back to the Minister of State on it. It does not look to me as though Ireland's taken position is as positive as he has stated. All OECD members were part of the 48 countries that voted against the UN resolution. Those countries represent 15% of the world's population and are estimated to enable 75% of global tax abuse. Developed countries, including Ireland, facilitate the majority of that global tax evasion. That is what this framework convention would seek to address, and our Government voted against it. That does not seem like a country that wants to see genuine equality in relation to corporation tax, so that those poorest countries most affected get more from it, and countries like ours are more transparent about our corporation tax.

I want to make the point that in February the UN's economic, social and cultural rights committee published a report calling on us to strengthen measures to stop tax abuse.

Tax Justice Network research estimates that Ireland accounts for 3.4% of corporate tax abuse and inflicts almost €11 billion of corporate tax abuse on other countries annually. The UN committee also found that Ireland has played a central role in some of the egregious and high-profile tax avoidance structures in the world, and it is often poorer countries that lose out. The Government and the country have a moral obligation to ensure that those poorer countries do not lose out, but gain from the spoils of more developed countries in the context of corporation tax. This convention would tackle the hurt inflicted on the global south by tax abuse facilitated by the West and developed nations. We are front and centre in the context of facilitating that tax abuse, and everyone knows it. We should be much more responsible in our actions. I will look at the Minister of State's reply in detail.

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