Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)

The Minister of State referenced a lot about substance and substantive positions and I am quite disappointed with that reply. I am not talking about BEPS agreements or Pillar Two or the OECD agreements. I am talking about intellectual property and the legal architecture that underpins it.

As far as I can tell, on the record of this House, this is the first time this report and the risks it highlighted - a potentially catastrophic decline in the State's resources - are being discussed. There is something deeply problematic about that. A few weeks ago Pat Leahy in The Irish Times quoted a Government official saying that there is no sense that the political system understands the danger we are in. If we need any proof of that, look no further. I am quite confused by the Government's position. On one hand, it projects an image of a prudent steward of the State's coffers, saying that corporate tax receipts will come down, but in the next breath, it dismisses concerns, regarding the change in exposure in IP holdings, saying the substantial operations, as the Minister of State just said, are located here. Which is it? Does the Minister of State actually know? In the Apple case, the Government argued the opposite. GNI* was instituted because GDP does not reflect reality.

We are not the only country, but we are perhaps the most significant country to be taking advantage of these kinds of legal structures. Notably, the Government's Central Statistics Office underestimated corporate tangible assets by one third less than this report. Can the Minister of State now give the public assurances the Government is taking this seriously and that it will act expeditiously, even if he does not have the full information?

That brings me to a broader point and question on the Irish economy. It is not simply a matter of rainy day funds. As a political system and as a country, we need to recognise that the tariff threats from the Trump Administration are an emergent feature of a shifting global trend in trade relations and the world economy. We need to reinvent industrial policy, making strategic investments that will allow for a less turbulent outlook. We need to invest in indigenous businesses and see a step change in State capacity and economic interventions. Only then, will we have the stable public finances and resilient economy and society the citizens of this Republic deserve.

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