Dáil Apple debate: No ‘golden pot being withheld’, says Martin

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said it was a "complete distortion" for TDs to say there is an opportunity to "grab a large pot of money" for the Irish exchequer in the EU Apple tax ruling.

There were Deputies determined to sell the idea that vast numbers of problems would be solved if only the State refused to appeal the judgment that Ireland gave illegal state aid to Apple, he said.

He said “this is a complete distortion of a situation which in reality poses a major threat to the long-term maintenance of employment and funding of public services”.

Mr Martin warned it was a “clear and present threat” to private sector workers and the income they generate for services which the State relied on.

And he said there was not one extra cent available to the Government or Dáil to spend. The legal battle would go on for six years and “there is no golden pot being withheld”.

He said there was Deputies who claimed to represent workers but who “arrogantly dismiss the role of hundreds of thousands of workers in multinational firms”.

This ruling is “a core part of trying to remove the opportunity for competition between member States on taxation”.

He said a five year investigation including an unprecedented and targeted trawl of Revenue files “has produced an assertion but no evidence”.

Mr Martin stressed “it has not been shown that there was selective treatment for one company”.

He described the ruling as “an attempt to falsely accuse Ireland of unfair competition”.

The myth about how Ireland taxes profits “need to be nailed”.

He said Ireland’s corporate tax rate was low but by no means the lowest.

The difference was that Ireland’s taxation policy was transparent and had long-term political support, he said.

Rates

The World Bank said Ireland is one of a few countries where the official and effective rates were practically identical, Mr Martin stated.

Ireland was one of the few countries were the official and effective rates were almost identical. The effective rate in 60 per cent of countries is far lower than in the stated rate, Mr Martin added.

France has a 33 per cent official rate, compared with a 7.4 per cent actual rate.

Ireland does not have a wide series of extra reductions and does not apply selective treatment in its application of the law.

But Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams accused the Government and Fianna Fáil of "scurrying around trying to portray the ruling by the European Commission in respect of illegal State aid as a question of tax sovereignty and an attempt to undermine our corporate tax rate".

He claimed that the “faced with the chance to stand up for Ireland’s interests, the Government have decided once again to act contrary to the welfare and interests of citizens”.

The Louth TD said “there can’t be one set of rules for some and different rules for others, with small and medium sized enterprises - the backbone of our economy - weighed down by government tax policies, while one very large company pays less than 1 per cent corporation tax”.

He said the ruling had nothing to do with Ireland’s corporate tax rate or tax sovereignty. “The Commission has not sought to change our 12.5 per cent rate of Corporation Tax.”

He warned that “any attempt to portray this is an issue of sovereignty is merely a smokescreen stoked up by those who have actually spent the past forty years handing over our sovereignty to the European institutions”.

“Sinn Féin believes in a strong enterprise sector and also wanted to see a vibrate foreign direct investment sector, contributing to economic growth and paying their fair share of taxes,” he said.

But he said “this is about tax justice in this state and internationally. Indigenous companies have been given no special deals or favours, nor were the self-employed, low-paid workers, pensioners or those struggling to make ends meet”.