Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I share the Senator's desire for as much transparency as is possible, which is a desire shared by all Members. However, I also greatly respect taxpayer confidentiality. Where should one draw the line? Do people want to see the Senator's tax affairs or my tax affairs? While it is important that the Revenue authorities should see them, they are confidential, are independent and are held in high regard by the public.

While understanding the rationale behind the Senator's recommendation, the main reason I am not in a position to accept it is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, process is a highly-positive step forward in that our tax authority, and indeed every other tax authority signed up to the OECD BEPS process, will be able to receive this country-by-country reporting. That means not only will the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland know about the level of tax paid by certain companies here, they also will know about the level of tax paid in other OECD countries. This can only be a good thing in respect of tackling aggressive tax planning, tax evasion and various other concerns that are shared by Senators on all sides of the House.

I acknowledge this is an issue Senator Barrett raised in the Chamber yesterday. However, were we to do anything that goes further than the OECD BEPS process, we would be giving a reason, an excuse or a way out to other countries not to share that information with our tax authority. In other words, the agreement on the BEPS process is there will be country-by-country reporting and tax authorities will share the information. The agreement is, however, that such information remains confidential to tax authorities. What I do not wish to do, I respectfully suggest the Senator does not want me to do it either, is to undertake to do anything that would jeopardise receiving additional information which the Revenue Commissioners do not possess today but will have as a result of the OECD BEPS process.

That said and in fairness to the issue raised by the Senator, it is a matter the European Commission is examining separately. The Commission is examining the issue of public country-by-country reporting. This would require companies themselves to make publicly available information about their operations, activities and profits in each country in which they operate. As I am sure the Senator is aware, the Commission recently held a public consultation on the issue and has now commissioned an impact assessment. The Government awaits the outcome of its impact assessment, which I consider to be the prudent thing to do.

One must ascertain the impact of any of these measures on jobs and investment but in any event, the Government will continue to engage actively in the debate on this issue at a European Union level while proceeding, through this Bill, with the introduction of country-by-country reporting to tax authorities, as agreed at the OECD as part of the BEPS process. In general, I believe that on this issue and all international tax issues, it is important to have a kind of global consistent approach. This is what has been agreed in respect of country-by-country reporting. It is a significant step forward and will provide a lot more information to our tax authority and many others. However, the Government cannot take the next step the Senator proposes it should take for the reasons I have outlined.