Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When the interests of corporations are taken to such an extent as the Apple tax scandal, those interests come before workers' rights, the environment, investment in public services and the interest of weaker states. Today, in the past hour, it has been reported that the European Commission has moved to refer Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failing to recover from Apple up to €13 billion of illegal state aid. Fine Gael's response to the European Commission's ruling last year that Apple repay that €13 billion plus interest in unpaid taxes was cloaked in a narrative of national self-interest. The party's priorities, which lie with corporations and big business rather than citizens in the Republic, were laid bare. Apple representatives have testified to a US Senate subcommittee that since the early 1990s the Irish government has calculated Apple's taxable income in such a way as to produce an effective tax rate which, since 2003, has been 2% corporation tax or less. A central pillar of Ireland's industrial strategy that attracts foreign direct investment through our corporate tax regime is now a liability as we build a reputation throughout the world as a state that facilitates massive tax avoidance by multinational corporations.Are we going to continue to side with multinationals and big business or are we going to take the side of citizens, communities and public services? Are we going to take the side of patients on trolleys and those who are homeless? Our reputation has been damaged and if the Government wants to repair that damage it should own up to the fact that successive Governments have facilitated massive tax avoidance. I am calling for a debate on foot of the news today from Europe. I am asking for the Minister for Finance to address Seanad Éireann and to answer for the fact that Ireland has failed to recover that €13 billion.