Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his presentation. It has been over a month since the European Commission ruled in favour of the Irish people who pay their taxes and demanded that Apple do likewise. Immediately, even before he had seen the decision, the Minister indicated that this State would appeal a decision to return a decade of unpaid tax deemed by the Commission to be due to the Irish people. At the time, my colleagues, Deputies Pearse Doherty and Gerry Adams, urged the Minister not to do this and made very sound arguments in this regard.

I come from an area where small and medium businesses are struggling. After they have paid their tax demands, there is very little money left to expand or to make improvements and, in some cases, they do not even have a decent wage themselves. Nothing in the Governments response gives any comfort to these people. Indeed, what we got from the Minister was a sudden, overwhelming and false conversion to the importance of Irish sovereignty - this from the Government that went against the interest of its own people so as not to be embarrassed or have "defaulter" stamped on its forehead in front of European colleagues.People do not believe the Government line that all this came as a surprise to them. Just like Brexit, this was coming down the tracks for a long time and the Government did what it always does, namely, wait until the last minute.

This Government was behind on many issues. When my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, raised the issue of the double Irish he was told by the Minister that it was not our problem. When he raised the issue of stateless companies he was told that he was a rabble rouser who could damage Ireland's reputation. When I asked the Minister, at the National Economic Forum back in June, if he could quantify the loss to the State of tax avoidance by vulture funds he chose to ignore the question. Likewise on this issue, the Government is fobbing off Sinn Féin.

This is a Government stuck in the 1990s when it comes to international tax. It is being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. Some of the reaction to our alternative budget launched today is very similar - a repetition of the mantra that we in Sinn Féin do not get economics. The public has been gifted the clearest example yet of who really does get economics. We in Sinn Féin say that we should take the €13 billion owed to us for the betterment of our people and to send out a clear message that while we welcome multinationals, we have a fair approach to taxation. This is nothing to do with our 12.5% corporation tax rate. This has been put out there as a red herring and the claim is that it is part of tax harmonisation but it is nothing of the kind.

Fine Gael states that we should not take it because it would expose it as complicit in a grubby deal that served the privileged few. Now that we have had time to digest the fact that the Minister is going ahead and appealing this ruling, there are a couple of points I want to raise with him. How much will the appeal cost? Is there a bottomless pit of money from hard-working Irish citizens? Why do we not just let Apple appeal, without the involvement of the Irish Government? Who benefits from the decision to appeal? So far, all we know is that William Fry has been engaged to advise the Government in setting up an escrow account. The country certainly will not benefit but a tax servicing company will.

Listening to some people here one would believe that the idea that state aid and tax ever collide is something unprecedented, unheard of. In fact, the Minister for Finance recently told my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, that Ireland had sought the opinion of the European Commission on 15 separate occasions regarding our tax policy in the last ten years. The issues ranged from looking at a refund of social security contributions for seafarers to changes to the Irish film tax relief system. In short, it is a normal, mundane thing for the European Commission to look at the state aid implications of what the Revenue Commissioners do.

Once again, I ask that the Minister reconsider his decision to appeal and accept the tax money owed to the Irish people. I am asking this on behalf of all the people who struggle to get by, yet manage to pay their taxes. I am asking him because he knows that, globally, up to $240 billion are lost each year as a result of countries, like ours, facilitating tax avoidance. His positive rhetoric on reforming tax law is belied by this Government's failure to clamp down on tax avoidance on a vast scale. He must put an end to the tax secrecy which has facilitated tax cheating on a major scale and denied Irish people an economy that serves all its citizens and not just those in the golden circle.