Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move recommendation No. 4:

In page 71, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:"(2) The Revenue Commissioners shall then make this country-by-country report available to the public on their website.".

We welcome the move towards country-by-country reporting, as it will lead to increased transparency. However, this also misses out on public transparency. It is interesting that the public is not allowed to know what is happening. In England, for example, when it was discovered that large multinationals operating there were paying low corporation tax rates, the public became annoyed and political pressure on those companies began to increase.These organisations then began to consider the necessity of maintaining good public relations with customers and of therefore stepping up to the plate in respect of a better corporation tax regime.

All Members are aware that society is a powerful leverage with regard to tax justice. If the information is not made public, consumers are not making full decisions on the justice behind the behaviour of those companies and it is not good for the public not to have such power and knowledge. Although we live in an information society, the information is largely withheld and that neutralises citizens' ability to effect change on these companies. As such public transparency is important, I ask the Minister of State his opinion as to whether he considers it right there should be transparent public knowledge on country-by-country reporting. Does the Minister of State think it is important that people are not kept in the dark with regard to their expenditure and the tax justice behind that?