I would like to be associated with the Tánaiste's remarks in regard to the late Tom Burke. "Legend" is a much-overused word but it is one that we can appropriately apply to Tom. Our sympathies go to his family and media comrades. Back in June, I told the Financial Times that Ireland could live with a small increase in our corporation tax rate. The Tánaiste accused me then of walking into a trap with those comments. He went on to accuse me and the Labour Party of damaging the national interest. It was clear then tha…

I certainly will not be patronised by the Tánaiste or anybody else in Fine Gael regarding what represents the national interest. The Labour Party has always put the national interest first, as history shows. The truth is that we could have boxed off the 15% condition very early on and it was the Tánaiste and his Government that created the kind of uncertainty that has dominated this process in recent months. I have asked him the very simple question of how much extra or less it is forecast that Ireland will raise i…

Committed earlier.

It was great to see the Tánaiste visit my home town of Drogheda last week. I notice he visited the Mill Enterprise Centre. This facility is very close to my heart as I have been involved with it for a long number of years in a range of different respects. The Tánaiste will know IDA Ireland recently purchased significant lands in Drogheda. Would it be the preference of the Tánaiste that IDA Ireland, an agency for which the Tánaiste is responsible, would locate data centres on the site? We have one already and specul…

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important issue for us, as an island nation. It directly affects several thousand workers and families in my constituency of Louth and east Meath. There is a concentration of aviation workers in these areas. There are people who depend for their livelihoods on Dublin Airport, and the aviation sector more generally, in Drogheda, Laytown, Bettystown, Mornington and Julianstown. I know the Minister of State will be aware of that. As my colleagues and the Minister of State and …

I am convinced that everything turns on housing, whether it relates to our society more generally or our economy. Precarious housing leads to precarious lives. It also leads to precarious health and a precarious economy. We hare having an open debate in this society and indeed, in this Parliament currently on the potential impact that an increase in corporation tax might have on our industrial strategy and our economic model. However, it is interesting to note that employers' organisations, such as IBEC and, indeed…

I am very proud to wrap up this debate on the first legislation that Deputy Bacik has introduced to this House as a new Member. It is grounded very much in a history of progressive legislation that she has introduced in the Oireachtas that is designed to improve the lives of the many, as this legislation does. We know that precarious housing leads to precarious lives, a precarious economy and a precarious society. Unfortunately, we have had five wasted years on housing, five wasted years in which fewer homes have b…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on Deputy Eoin Ó Broin’s Bill. Before I go into the meat of this, it is important that we reflect a little on the history and, indeed, performance in practical terms of the Part V provision since it was introduced over 20 years ago. The Minister of State touched on it briefly, to a point, in his contribution. I was a member of a local authority at the time, as were many colleagues across the House. It was, as Deputies will recall, introduced by one of the Minister's predecessors, …

We should all be shamed by what we read last week. After the Minister learned of the single malt tax dodge in 2018, he moved to close the structure down. The Minister said in 2018 that the Ireland-Malta tax agreement would "eliminate any remaining concerns about such structures". Thanks to Christian Aid, we now know a knock-off version of the single malt is still available. Did the Minister know that Irish-registered companies could still move profits to Malta to avoid corporation tax after the 2018 agreement was s…

I find it hard to understand or accept that the agreement is working in the way in which the Minister intended. The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, responded to me in the Dáil last week and informed me that "One case is being discussed and the Revenue is keeping a close eye on that". What precisely was meant by that? Can the Minister confirm to the House that there are no other company structures taking advantage of the kinds of arrangements of which we were made aware last week? Companies will say that they are…

I would be interested in establishing, insofar as the Minister can, what kind of prior knowledge Revenue had of this kind of arrangement? Has it signed off on it? Generally speaking, to the best of my knowledge and experience, Revenue would have knowledge of arrangements of this nature. Given the scale of the company, one would imagine Revenue keeps a very close eye on these kinds of operations. Can we be absolutely reassured that there are no other firms incorporated in Ireland using these kinds of structures to d…

Amid all the noise on global corporation tax reform and the process, it is appropriate at this stage that the Minister would update the House on his engagement with the OECD on the global corporation tax process. He will be aware from the Labour Party submission to his Department's public consultation process, a process I called for and that I welcome, that our considered assessment is the State should sign up in full to both pillars of the process, including a commitment to a marginally higher minimum effective ra…

I thank the Minister for that reply. I have some appreciation of the situation he is in and I genuinely believe he believes the decision at this stage not to sign up formally to pillar 2 of the process is, as he sees it, in the national interest. We have two different, competing perspectives in terms of what the national interest is. That is informed, I believe, by our different political and economic philosophies and traditions, and I respect and fully understand that. During our consultation process internally in…

I thank the Minister for further clarifying his position, and that is what I understood it to be. My preference would have been that the State would have signalled our intention to fully sign up and explicitly support pillar 2 for a range of different reasons. I fear, because of the continued delay in us committing to signing up to pillar 2 - I appreciate the unknowns that the Minister is reflecting on - that will mean that we are coming at this from a position of relative weakness rather than relative strength. I …

So interested is the Labour Party in this legislation that we are providing three speakers this afternoon. I will be taking ten minutes and Deputy-----

We do not do indulgences in the Labour Party.

It is a secularist party.

Deputy Sherlock will be following Deputy Howlin. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. As we know, it provides a legislative framework for a new streamlined development consent process for activities in the maritime area, including offshore renewable projects. As has been said many times in this debate, our sea area is seven times the size of our land mass. As an island nation with one of the largest seabed territories in Europe, this Bill will be essential in shaping the future of marine areas and develo…

I plan to restrict my remarks to some constructive criticism of the current regime and some of the legislative lacunae that hamper the full operation of the freedom of information system. We have learned a considerable amount over the past 24 years since the first legislation was enacted by my colleagues in the Labour Party. The Labour Party is proud to be the party that created Ireland's freedom of information system. Of course, the initial legislation back in 1997 was subsequently amended, to put it diplomaticall…

It transpires that the single malt tax shelter the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, thought he had closed down in 2018 appears to be still very much open for business. The so-called single malt allowed companies incorporated here to minimise their corporation tax bills by funnelling profits into low tax states, in this case Malta, with which we have tax treaties. We now know, thanks to Christian Aid, that at least one company, in this case, the pharmaceutical giant, Abbott, is still availing of a single malt-type tax avoi…