Mattie McGrath on FDI, corporation tax and regional jobs

Deputy Mayor. Hello, I'm delighted. I'm delighted, really I'm delighted that you're in that position. I will miss your contributions when you're in the chair from the floor. Certainly I always value them, I always try to listen to them, I always found them engaging, interesting, educated, well informed and very fair and balanced. And I know that you'll be the very same in your role as Cahillach and it's the first woman in the position. It's just fabulous, 101 years, we're waiting for her. And I know the kind of humble person you are that you wouldn't, you know, you campaigned for it obviously, but you wouldn't, you would have been gracious in defeat as well, but no. And look, I mean this judgment, I'm glad the judgment has come out to be fair. And I've mixed views here on this because I come from a representative constituency in South Tipperary where we have, you know, 5,000 plus direct investment jobs in Clonmel alone. And I might say some in Cashel, Nina, you know, and many other parts. And also in Dunggavon, which might have my parish county water, but we have a huge cohort of front of direct development. And it's fine for Deputy Mike Barrett and many people on the left to just criticise and attack and knock. And you mentioned there about the workers, and I value workers as much as anybody. I am an employer, I might as well say myself in a company, we have 18, 25 workers. And work is, it's a two way thing. If you haven't got the people with the seeds and the thoughts and the innovators to come up with the ideas. And get to have, you know, breaks there and tax breaks there as well in R&D and whatever. And if you haven't got those, we won't have the job. So it's a chicken and egg situation and you can't have it both ways. So, I mean, we value those. And I'm a big supporter of the 12.5% cooperation tax in Ireland. Which is up front and which is out there for everyone to see. I understand there are other countries, the EU countries, and I haven't any scientific evidence of it, but anecdotal evidence that France and many other countries, they might have only a much lower one, but they have a more creative way, or a devious way, or whatever, of getting around it. So look, any of us that are in business, I suppose, too, there are tax schemes, and goodness knows there's a number of them announced in the stimulus last night. They take time to bet in, they take time for the people, the employers and the companies, and the business people that need them to get used to them. They need a very good account and good advice. If they don't get the good advice often, and I'm a victim of that myself, you need the best advice, but often you don't get it. But look, this decision, I mean, the money and the so-called 13 billion that was out there as a pot of gold, the rainbow, which come normally this time of year on May or whatever, the rainbow wasn't there, unfortunately. And we have to accept that decision. You might tell me if Dr. Collins arrives, because I won't be able to see him. And, you know, look, as I said, Merck Sheppendorn came to Clonmel in 1974-05, and our fabulous employer, probably six, seven hundred people in the factory, not to mind to say all the spin-off service industries. And that's the same for Apple. I had Deputy Barry last week talking about how he could see it from where he lives in Cork and up the hill and different places. But you don't realise the amount of small businesses that are employing people. Because they are subcontracting, and because they are subcontracting and subcontracting, again, the spin-off is enormous. The raw materials and the products that are brought in there, the very maintenance of the factory, and they're very supplying it in food and beverages and everything that goes into it. And, of course, they pay rates, as well, to the county councils, that they're going to pay huge rates, which is a huge part of the funding for the county councils in the prospective counties. The problem I have in the last number of years is that we can't get those FDI jobs. We can't get them out of Dublin. Dublin can't cope. It's wonderful to go up to the top floor here, we're on the top floor, and look across the city and see all the cranes and see the massive development in this area. And it's fabulous. Great, I don't envy it one bit, but we want our fair share in other counties. So, as I said, this judgment, I don't know if it's going to be appealed on further, and I'm going to have to write up the speed with it. But, look, it certainly is out there, and maybe it gets clarity, because foreign direct companies, they have people working here, and they have people watching and seeing what's going on. And they can read as well. And the negative, and the attacks on them, day in, day out by some politicians of the left, is not good, because it's an ideological issue. And, look, we've had a general election, and we hadn't a very clear outcome, but nonetheless, if the people were so aghast at this, you'd think that they would vote for parties of the left more so, and change the ideology. So, look, I come as a small businessman myself. I pay the taxes. I don't have any corporation taxes and special deeds. So, I understand it, and it's onerous, and it's difficult, and the PRSI, everything has to be paid, and that's only rightly so, because workers must be protected. When we see the likes of Debenhans, when we see the likes of many other big companies, when we see the meat industry, MII, and the way they have creative ways, we should tackle those, because they're homegrown. And they're better than even the other companies of getting around the loopholes and investing in paper companies and, you know, the companies that are there as well, that just are taking ways of devising. So, Minister, if I say one thing to you, I think we need some of those business people in the Department of Finance to give you the advice, to understand the thinking and the thought process that goes into those big companies and the expert advice that they can earn. Have we a match for them in our department? I'm not criticising the people in the department, I'm just saying that we need that broad base of expertise, and it could be needed too, and they probably get people in that understand the tax laws and maybe work in their areas as well. So, we need that. But, as far as this judgement is concerned, as I said, I'm glad that it's out there. I just hope the CAN won't be keep rattling them, we won't be upsetting any of them. Every FDI job that we have here, and our employees, and their families, and indeed the boardrooms in America, in a very volatile time, and the boardrooms are conscious of what's going on and where they can. And I have to compete with economies in Eastern Europe and other areas where there is literally slave labour going on, and we can't condone that. We have to uphold that. So, we must have a balance here, and we must try and get as much tax off of these people at the FDIs as we can, but we have to, as well as that, be careful to ensure that we don't banish them altogether, to hell or to connect, and they leave our country, and we'd be a much poorer place. And we'd be a much poorer place in Tipperary, but without the Mercs, the Boston Scientific, the Abbott, Fasca, and the many other ones on healthcare, and at homegrown, but those firm and companies especially, they are tremendous. And they are also innovators, and leading in the field of innovation and life-saving devices. So, we must support them as well as criticise them. It can't be all one way street. So, we value the workers, and we all support the workers, and we want this fair play. Goed maagut. Go好吃. Hotchi! Goat�� M readers! ! ! ! ? ! ? ? bilirmere?