Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree with the Minister of State's response that unilateral measures would risk Ireland's position at the OECD. We know that other countries have already introduced a tax on digital advertising, not the digital tax he is referring to. The Austrians charged a rate of 5% on gross receipts from advertising services rendered by providers in Austria if they are targeted at Austrian users on Austrian devices. The French scheme takes aim at targeted advertisements in particular. It is clearly workable and clearly not something that is tied up in the wider issues the Minister of State outlined.

According to the organisation Core, the advertising market is worth €1.23 billion in Ireland. Using back-of-the-envelope maths, if we were to introduce a 3% levy on that, it would bring in €60 million that could be used to help to tackle climate change in this country and go towards a just transition. I do not accept that we cannot move in a unilateral way. That is always the response whenever we raise issues in this House. We are looking around and we see that our European counterparts are showing the radical responses necessary to tackle climate change by moving without having to wait for an EU-wide proposal.