Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Bacik also welcomed the Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which will be discussed soon in the House.

Senator Barrett and the vast majority of Senators raised a report on comments made at US Senate sub-committee hearings about Apple and taxation. I want to make it clear, as the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Gilmore, and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, have said, that Ireland does not do special tax-rate deals with companies. That is the position. We do not have a special extra-low corporation tax for multinational companies. Ireland's tax system is statute based and there is no possibility of individual special tax-rate deals for companies. That is the clear position of the Government.

In addition, in December 2012, Ireland became one of the first countries in the world to sign an agreement with the United States to improve international tax compliance and implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act 2010. This type of agreement is now being hailed as an international standard for the automatic exchange of tax information.

That is the position as it stands. We have nothing to hide. There is total transparency on our corporate taxation system. Rather than-----