Results 29,781-29,800 of 35,924 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: We are discussing a different company.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome Professor Barry's presentation to the committee, which was very good. I would like to comment on other issues on which Professor Barry previously commented, including who writes the law. I am aware that this is an issue on which Dr. Jim Stewart and Professor Barry would probably disagree. I have heard Professor Barry refer to the radicals who ask who writes the law. I am not...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I asked last year that this committee investigate and holding hearings on these matters. This was prior to the availability of the Seanad report. Since then, we have had formal preliminary investigations into Ireland's sweetheart deals with multinational corporations, which in time will be proved or disproved. This boils down to something Professor Barry said earlier. Professor Barry,...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: No.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I agree with Professor Barry that we have to be very conscious of the ramifications of any measure that we take. However, every year we make changes through the Finance Bill. We know the loophole exists whereby companies locate here and make billions in profits annually while not paying tax anywhere in the world. The Department of Finance is happy to have the matter dealt with at a global...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: It was. It used the methodology used by the World Bank.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I am not familiar with it. The reason I ask is that the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, which claimed our effective tax rate was 11.9%, used a standardised methodology as described by the World Bank, whereby to come up with our effective tax rate it examined a company in Ireland which produces ceramic flowerpots and has a gross profit margin of 20%. This company does not trade...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I would also love to see the methodology behind the numbers.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I would appreciate that. Much stock is being put on the OECD report by certain sources in the Government. Professor Barry called it a damp squib and I believe his analysis is 100% correct. I put it to the OECD representative who came before the committee, whose name I cannot remember, that the threat of the US vetoing this is enormous and that Professor Barry's analysis with regard to...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I disagree with Professor Barry's claim that when the US introduced the check-the-box system in 1996, which came into effect in 1997, Ireland closed down its loopholes. Of course it closed down its loopholes in the Finance Act 1999, but it was not directly as a result of the check-the-box system. The paper commissioned by the Department of Finance on the loopholes that were closed down,...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome Professor Frank Barry to the committee. I have heard him before through the technology of YouTube, where I watched his very informative presentation to the IEA. I want to raise several issues. Professor Barry mentioned tax havens like Bermuda and how the "Double Irish" and "Dutch sandwich" work. Are there others Professor Barry would point to, or is it just Bermuda, the Cayman...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The purpose of this committee is not to determine whether Ireland is a tax haven but to look at how we try to get more from our multinational companies to help contribute to the recovery of the country and ensure we are not being used by multinational companies in legal tax avoidance. On the issue of tax havens, which has come up in the US Senate, Professor Barry says it is Alice in...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The OECD has confirmed to the committee that there is no tax haven in the world, based on its definition of tax havens.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: If we were to apply the definitions of tax haven the Americans and the OECD are using to Ireland, we equally have to apply them to the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. The reason I am saying this is that "tax haven", if we go back to the definition, does not mean anything today because tax policy has changed so much, whether Professor Barry believes one place is a tax haven and another person...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Joint Sub-Committee on Global Corporate Taxation: Base Erosion and Profit Sharing: Discussion with Trinity College (17 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I say this because what the Americans and others say is that it is really about how some companies perform. I do not believe the definition of a country as a tax haven is applicable any longer. To move on to other questions, the table on corporation tax rates is very interesting and shows we have the lowest effective tax rate out of the 33 listed on the table. When we ask the Government...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Down's Syndrome Education Equality: Discussion (11 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: That is a policy issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Down's Syndrome Education Equality: Discussion (11 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I expect he is listening if Professor Buckley wishes to send him a message.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Down's Syndrome Education Equality: Discussion (11 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I thank our guests for their presentations. A document was prepared for us by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service which assists the committee, although I am not a member. The first conclusion is that it is exceptionally difficult to identify how children with Down's syndrome are supported in mainstream classes on a national basis. That is where I want to start because we received...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of 2014 Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (11 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I have a number of questions, some of which are specific to one organisation, while others are for all of the organisations to answer. I welcome the presentations. The aim of the alternative budget proposals put forward is one that I endorse. I am not sure who made the point during the presentations but it is true that the budgets have focused on numbers instead of people. That is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of 2014 Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (11 Sep 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The representatives of both organisations are very welcome to the meeting. I welcome the presentations they have made. The main issue is not the individual proposals but the fact that there are options. Despite the fact that both organisations are looking at the same type of macroeconomic analysis, a number of proposals have been brought forward and what the committee and the public need...