It's official. Ireland is a tax haven in the eyes of the European Parliament raising fears that country’s reputation could be thrashed.
A hard-hitting report by the EU parliament’s committee on financial crime and tax evasion has accused Ireland and several other EU states of acting like tax havens.
The report has been adopted by the Parliament which has also called for measures to close loopholes which allow big multinationals pay little or no tax.
MEPs have demanded tougher EU rules against tax evasion and tax avoidance and named Ireland as one of the countries involved in such practices.
Sinn Fein claimed that not alone do these tax dodges destroy Ireland’s reputation they are also unfair on ordinary workers who pay their taxes.
Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy said: “Once again we’re going to seen newspaper headlines characterising Ireland as a tax haven.
“We’ve seen in the past other organisations... tax justice groups claiming that Ireland is one of a number of European tax havens.
“Now we have an official position of a European institution claiming that Ireland is a tax haven.
“To me that’s incredibly damaging to our reputation and could potentially be damaging to our prospects of attracting foreign direct investment into the future.
“But it’s deeply unfair on the Irish people who do pay their taxes.”
The report was overwhelmingly adopted by the European Parliament with 505 votes in favour, 63 against and 87 abstentions.
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The MEPs also recommended moving away from governments being allowed use their veto at European Council level to block tax reforms.
The report also questioned the link between foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ireland and the level of economic activity being carried out by multinationals in the state.
A European financial police force, an EU financial intelligence unit and an anti-money laundering watchdog are also called for in the report’s recommendations.
Separately, a United Nations report has found that the Irish government for allowing vulture funds buy up family homes and giving them tax breaks when they do so.
The UN accused the government of doing nothing to prevent the vultures coming in and buying thousands of low-income and affordable homes and forcing families out.
They then upgrade the properties and raise the rents making them affordable to only the well off.
UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing Leilani Farha has sent letters to the Irish Government and five other countries.
Ms Farha has accused them of allowing the “financialisation of housing” preferential tax laws and weak tenant protections along with other measures.
