Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This section deals with anti-avoidance measures which in my view will become a major part of modern public finance as it develops. I refer to the growth in the number of tax lawyers and accountants, the Starbucks case, the artificial movement of transactions between countries. The Economist recently published a headline, Wake up and Smell the Coffee, over a report about Starbucks and its tax problems. Jim Stewart in TCD reckons that very few firms actually pay the 12.5% rate because they have enough lawyers to reduce that rate. I am not so sure that is in the public interest. I note that on 5 December 2012, the European Commission proposed to clamp down on corporate tax avoidance. I note the headline in the Irish Independent on 18 January 2013, Noonan Fears Reputational Damage over Double Irish Tax Avoidance. I support the Minister in that section. Given that tax avoidance is now a major industry we need to have the means to combat it. Unfortunately, it has become a feature of the way international business conducts itself by artificially locating transactions in low-tax jurisdictions, to the cost of the Exchequer. I note all the difficulties which the Minister and the Government must confront every day. Tax avoidance is an activity which the Department should counteract with all possible commitment because the people who want to avoid paying tax are certainly putting a lot of energy into this.