Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To put it in context, approximately 270,000 people are employed by foreign direct investment companies. For each one of those jobs there is another job that is linked to those companies. These are extremely valuable companies for Irish employment. The conversations in political chambers can be very pure and the Senators are having a very pure discussion about tax. I would love everybody to be on the same level, but if we are trying to attract a company to this country that will employ hundreds or thousands of people, the chief executive could say: "There is no problem getting paid by my company but your levels of income tax are penal for high earners so I will go somewhere else. However, it was good talking to you.". That is what the Senators are saying.

What we must do is ensure that we get jobs into this country and keep people employed. For executives coming here with a company from another jurisdiction the issue is not how much they are paid, but how much they are taxed at the highest level. They can choose not to come because they can go somewhere else where they can have a much lower tax rate than the rate in Ireland. These company executives come here and bring their managerial skills and abilities, and they are here for a number of years. Some of them leave and some of them stay, but those skills are passed on to Irish people who do not have the opportunity to avail of the SARP. The benefit of the SARP is that knowledge, skill sets and abilities are brought in from abroad and are retained in Ireland. There is a very successful structure here in Ireland and this is part of it. Have the Senators who disagree with this read the Indecon report?