Shane Ross (Independent)

I hope the House is aware that a large head of steam is building up on both sides of the Atlantic, and has been prominent in the media in the past few days, concerning the activities of multinationals in this country and the tax rate they enjoy. It appears, because of what is happening in the United States, and here as well, that there is danger in the undergrowth of some fundamental change in the treatment of multinationals, not necessarily in Ireland, but in the United States.

A presidential commission is looking at their taxation regimes and what is known as transfer pricing, which is their means of not repatriating money back to America. There have been a number of high profile cases involving at least one person, I will not name him, taking large sums of money through a perfectly legitimate tax loophole. The problem is that Ireland may be looked upon by the United States as a tax haven, and is being referred to as such in the Wall Street Journal.