KEEPING IN TOUCH DUBLIN WEST
JOAN BURTON TD Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
TAX EVASION: THE G8 CAN ACT WHEN THEY MEET IN IRELAND The G8 are the leaders of the world’s biggest economies and they meet this June in Fermanagh. This year they have become aware of the astonishing amount of private wealth that has been placed offshore to avoid ordinary business and personal taxes. Enquiries in the UK show how many international firms use complex tax arrangements to bring their tax bills to levels as low as 3 or 4% while many wealthy individuals have used tax havens in exotic locations to shield their income from tax altogether. All this has been known for some time but it is only now we realise just how enormous the cost is even to rich countries like the UK and Germany. Individual countries find it difficult to act against this trend. If one country acts alone, an army of lawyers and tax accountants mobilise to transfer money elsewhere. If the G8 acts jointly they could make a giant step towards tax justice in every country, big and small. Joan Burton has spent all her political career chasing reform in this area. “Yes we have a progressive tax code but it is just too easy for many super rich individuals and companies to reduce their tax bills to almost zero by using tax shelters and tax havens to hide what they own. If there was effective international action agreed in Fermanagh this summer we could, at last, have access to new funds to build schools, hospitals and roads. It could be a giant step in promoting economic growth and providing a way out of the current austerity in Europe. I hope Barack Obama, David Cameron and Angela Merkel seize the moment when they meet.”
A HISTORIC APOLOGY Following the Government’s apology to the women of the Magdalene Laundries, Joan spoke on the issue in the Dail. It wasn’t the first time she had done so. In 2010, while in Opposition, Joan had said the terrible ordeal of the women committed to the laundries was one of the last unresolved issues of hidden Ireland. Now, Labour has acted decisively to resolve this longstanding injustice. In her Dail speech Joan recalled the laundry that had been attached to her old school in Stanhope Street and visiting the women there when she was a child. “I hope this process will be helpful to them and healing for them, particularly as many of them are in the later decades of their lives. I hope it will help them… that Irish society has made a meaningful apology.” Joan meeting with constituents
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Spring 2013
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