In July 2020, this coalition of organisations made a submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child outlining how Ireland is failing to meet its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child due to its facilitation of cross-border tax abuse, in particular by enabling corporate profit-shifting.
In November 2020, the Committee asked the Irish Government to “describe the measures taken to ensure that tax policies do not contribute to tax abuse by companies operating in other countries, leading to a negative impact on the availability of resources for the realization of children’s rights in those countries.”
In February 2022, the Government of Ireland asserted in its combined fifth and sixth periodic reports to the Committee that “its tax policy does not contribute to tax abuse by companies operating in other countries”, and that there are “no negative spill-overs…on the economies of developing countries” as a result of Ireland’s tax regime and policies.
Our submission responds to the material in the Government of Ireland’s combined reports, demonstrating that Irish tax policies and associated profit-shifting structures described in the 2020 Submission, and further evidenced in this new submission, enable multinational companies to significantly reduce their tax liabilities in countries where they make and sell their products and services, thereby eroding those countries’ tax bases. The submission provides updated analysis on (1) Ireland’s 2015 ‘Spillover Analysis’; (2) Ireland’s continued facilitation of profit-shifting and its impact; (3) Ireland’s undermining of international cooperation on profit-shifting; and (4) Ireland’s obligations under the Convention.
The submission concludes that Ireland has knowingly taken actions which undermine the capacity of developing countries to
secure children’s economic, social and cultural rights and that these actions constitute a failure to comply with the Convention of the Rights of the Child.