Results 7,141-7,160 of 26,897 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Can I just stop Mr. Keegan there because time will run out?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have seen figures - I do not have them in front of me - which show that, for example, the productivity of workers in Irish multinationals and the profits generated per worker are off the Richter scale compared to other countries.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have great time for Irish workers and I have no doubt how educated and capable they are, but there is such a spectacular gap between the profits being generated per worker in Irish multinationals and those in other countries, that two and two would strongly seem to suggest four. I am suggesting there is something going on. Would Mr. Keegan agree with that?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is the question.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have two other quick questions and the answers will have to be brief because I do not have much time. I am back-tracking a little bit. Tax deferral, as opposed to tax evasion, might be legal but Mr. Keegan made a good point which is worth underlining. Perhaps he can confirm this point. If one can defer tax there is a huge amount at stake, is there not? To take the comparison with an...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: One can do it for five years.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If one is on a low income, one can do it.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: With interest.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, but one pays interest on it. As regards share values, however, because they do not have to pay tax on it the value of their shares can appreciate - sometimes enormously - and they can then sell those shares and make vast fortunes. Generally speaking, it is not a mechanism that is available to ordinary citizens but by doing this, shareholders in those companies can become very rich. Is...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have one last point. There were references to the €4 billion we get in profits. Mr. Keegan said that was a big figure. Perhaps he could comment on the point I have made several times, namely, that compared to the €70 billion in pre-tax profits it is very small.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is 6.8% of the pre-tax profits. The European Commission's effective figure would confirm that, whereas effective rates elsewhere - according to a paper we received recently from the Oireachtas Library service - showed that similar implicit rates across Europe are very much higher. Putting that together with the point about research and development, there are other ways in which taxable...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have just one question, while Mr. Keegan thinks about his answer. Why is our implicit rate so much lower than everybody else's in Europe?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: According to the figures we were given in the research document, it is. The implicit rate is much higher than in other countries in Europe.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: Discussion (27 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay.

Guerin Report: Statements (Resumed) (28 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The revelations and scandals surrounding allegations of Garda malpractice, corruption, cover-ups and wrongdoing are of the most serious nature. We have had in very quick succession quite shocking revelations about the extent of these practices within An Garda Síochána and allegations regarding the apparent complicity of the Department of Justice and Equality and Governments and...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: (Resumed) KPMG and Unite (28 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will Mr. O'Brien repeat that?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: (Resumed) KPMG and Unite (28 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Losses that have-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: (Resumed) KPMG and Unite (28 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does Mr. O'Brien think morality and fairness should come into tax policy and corporate tax policy?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: (Resumed) KPMG and Unite (28 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does he think it is moral or fair that the cleaning lady who cleans the floors and toilets in a multinational company pays twice or possibly three times the proportion of her income in tax than the shareholder who buys shares in a multinational and does nothing?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Ireland's Corporate Tax System: (Resumed) KPMG and Unite (28 May 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I asked Mr. Coffey, who is our economic expert and rapporteur, for the effective tax rate for the average worker in this country. Most cleaning ladies would probably earn less than the average. Let us take the average worker who pays 25% of his or her income in tax as against the effective tax rate for the corporations for whom the cleaning lady works. I would argue that the corporations...