Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This debate has raised a number of very interesting issues. I agree with Senator Michael D'Arcy that on different levels citizens have paid a great deal and it is very unfair to go back to them looking for more of a take when these very sophisticated multinational companies are using whatever mechanism is necessary to try to avoid paying a fair amount of tax. Fairness is what this budget and Finance Bill should have been about. If there are legal companies or tax advisers acting as advisers to both poacher and gamekeeper, that is a very serious issue. Surely there must be some sense of a conflict of interest if they are working on both sides of that divide, and that should be looked into.

I note that part of deal that was imposed on Cyprus by the troika affected its corporate tax regime. The Government and the Minister for Finance were part the agreement and arrangement in terms of the Council of Ministers who agreed to those recommendations being put forward and that deal being done in Cyprus. It is very hard in one sense to sit here defending the corporation tax rate in Ireland while we are going out to Europe agreeing to deals where the corporation tax of other member states can be tinkered with, diluted or changed. Surely the Minister of State must be concerned about that in that the EU poachers might come looking for more of a change to our tax rate system.