Christian Aid has said it is time for Ireland to amend its policies around corporate tax and work to end harmful corporate profit-shifting.
The charity was responding to the UN’s most senior human rights watchdog, which has expressed concern over Ireland’s role in corporate tax avoidance.
The UN’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee called on the Government take “all necessary measures” to prevent tax avoidance and to conduct an independent, comprehensive review of the impact of its tax policies on developing countries.
The committee formally recommended that Ireland “strengthen measures to combat illicit flows, cross-border tax evasion, and tax fraud, in particular by wealthy individuals and business enterprises operating or domiciled in the state party’s jurisdiction”, and to “take all necessary measures to avoid… shell companies to be used for profit-shifting.”
The concluding observations from the committee come following a two-day hearing in Geneva last month February, where Minister of State Joe O’Brien and officials were questioned on a wide range of issues.
While periodic assessment by the UN examines domestic policies, it also considers negative ‘spillover’ impacts outside of a country’s borders.
Christian Aid, an Irish charity working to eradicate poverty worldwide, has pointed out that during the oral hearings in Geneva last month, the committee requested that Ireland “undertake a systematic investigation and audit of its tax system, to ensure that it is not used directly or indirectly as a platform or conduit for international tax avoidance, which impacts tax revenue of developing countries”.
This was repeated in written recommendations published yesterday evening.
In February 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is tasked with monitoring children’s rights worldwide, raised similar concern and called on the Government to ensure that its tax policies are not negatively impacting the rights of children in developing countries.
Christian Aid Ireland’s Head of Policy & Advocacy Conor O’Neill has described Ireland’s role in enabling corporate tax avoidance as “a glaring blind spot”.
“Ireland has played a central role in some of the most egregious and high-profile tax avoidance structures in the world, and it’s often poorer countries who lose out.
“As a development organisation, we see this impact starkly; money is lost that should be paying for hospitals and schools, prolonging a reliance on aid and keeping people trapped in poverty,” he said.
Christian Aid Ireland and a coalition of NGOs are calling on the government to accept the committee’s call to conduct new, detailed economic research on the impact of Irish tax policy on poorer developing countries, and to reform policies that can be shown to enable avoidance.
Director of the Global Legal Action Network Dr Gearóid Ó Cuinn said it is rare for UN Human Rights Committees to directly raise concerns about the impacts of tax policies abroad.
Yet, it has happened twice in just over 12 months to Ireland.
“The independent experts have clearly recognised the incontrovertible evidence that Ireland’s tax policies are undermining basic rights in impacted countries by hindering access to healthcare and education. It is now clear that Ireland is bound by international law to cooperate with other states, amend its policies and work to end harmful corporate profit-shifting,” he said.
