Letters to the Editor, September 21st: On tax revenue sharing, defence spending cuts and Ed Sheeran
Sir, – French finance minister Roland Lescure says Ireland should share more of its corporation tax revenues with the rest of Europe because, in his words, the digital economy is a “European cake, not an Irish cake”. It is an interesting principle. Perhaps we could apply it consistently. When French companies win major contracts abroad, is a slice of their profits sent back to the countries where the work is carried out? Should profits earned by French companies from infrastructure, construction, engineering and other commercial activities across Europe be redistributed accordingly? One wonders why the cake suddenly becomes European when the icing happens to be on Ireland’s plate? Ireland has spent decades building an economy capable of attracting multinational investment. We provide the workforce, infrastructure, legal framework and tax system within the rules agreed internationally. That this has generated substantial corporation tax receipts is hardly an accident, nor does it make those receipts a European kitty waiting to be divided up. If Lescure genuinely believes that profits should follow economic activity, perhaps France could lead by example and start dividing up the profits of French companies according to where they earn them. That could make for an interesting European conversation – and perhaps a rather smaller French cake. – Yours, etc, FERGAL CLEARY, Naas, Co Kildare. Sir, – The recent suggestion by the French minister for finance about redistributing Irish tech taxes might encourage the Irish State to spend these huge surpluses rather than store them for some rainy day. These proceeds should be spent on required capital investments: hospitals, houses, schools, community playing fields and electric transport in all towns and cities. Such prudent capital expenditure would be a fitting and lasting “pay back” to the Irish public. There is something unjust about massive corporate tax yields and the continued rise in inequality and poverty in this country. – Yours, etc, EVELYN MAHON, Fellow Emerita, Trinity College Dublin. Sir, – Ireland should look to Norway in how we handle today’s extraordinary corporation tax receipts. Norway could easily have spent its oil windfall, in the late 1960s, as it came in. Instead, it invested much of it abroad and built a sovereign wealth fund. The numbers are remarkable, with the fund now worth nearly €2 trillion. And the wealth has compounded: only about a quarter of today’s fund represents net money originally paid in from petroleum revenues. Investment returns have done most of the heavy lifting. Just as importantly, Norwegian governments cannot simply raid the pot. Their fiscal rule is designed around spending roughly 3 per cent of the fund over time (essentially its expected real return) so the underlying wealth can endure for future generations. Ireland is enjoying an unusually large corporation tax windfall, much of it concentrated among a small number of multinational companies. We already have the Future Ireland Fund, but we should be far more ambitious. Imagine taking a substantial share of these exceptional receipts each year, investing them globally, and allowing them to compound for 20, 30 or 50 years. Norway turned temporary oil wealth into permanent national wealth. Ireland should use today’s corporate tax boom to do the same. – Yours, etc, KILLIAN STOKES, Ringsend, Dublin 4. Regulating AI developments Sir, – Last week saw major leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) change course and rather than extolling the life-changing virtues of AI they spoke out about the potentially existential threat it poses to humanity . This is no longer simply a technological issue. As Pope Leo has said, it is an anthropological challenge facing society. It is clear that regulation and international governance of AI are needed, but we already know that voluntary or self-regulation doesn’t work when commercial and geopolitical interests are at stake. What is needed is an international system of mandatory rules, independent oversight and verification. Fortunately, we already have a model. The world has created international institutions to govern the risks of nuclear technology. We should now have the ambition to do the same for AI. For almost 70 years, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has provided a framework for international co-operation on nuclear technology. Underpinned by international agreements, its safeguards system verifies that states are honouring their obligations, supported by inspections and reporting mechanisms. AI requires a comparable international governance framework: an adequately resourced global body capable of establishing common standards, monitoring compliance and providing independent oversight of the most consequential AI systems. Ireland has a unique opportunity to promote such a framework. On October 14th, Dublin is to host the International AI Summit, bringing together European and global political and technology leaders. We should use this occasion to put the establishment of an IAEA-style global AI oversight body firmly on the international agenda. – Yours, etc, DECLAN DEASY, Castlebellingham, Co Louth. A national disgrace Sir, – In light of the genocide in Gaza and the continuing occupation by Israel of large areas of Palestine, the decision of the FAI to go ahead with the match against Israel is a national disgrace. – Yours, etc, J ANTHONY GAUGHAN, President, Irish PEN, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Abysmal penny-pinching Sir, – What a complete lack of joined-up thinking (“ Soldiers’ rations cut, naval radar plan paused as Defence Forces ordered to save millions ”, News, September 20th). Who makes these decisions? We ask the French and Royal navies to assist us in drone and air defence. Some weeks later we pause the upgrading of our Naval Service radar plan. You could not make it up. The Minister should issue a statement immediately about this abysmal penny-pinching and reverse these decisions. – Yours, etc, PETER PATRICK, Greystones, Co Wicklow. Short letters Sir, – I agree with Tony Corcoran that short letters are the best. (“ Beauty of brevity ”, Letters, September 19th). To quote William Shakespeare : “Brevity is the soul of wit”. – Yours, etc, TOMÁS DOOLIN, Rathmines, Dublin 6. Sir, – Like Tony Corcoran, every acquaintance of mine who reads The Irish Times follows the same practice (as l do too) of reading all the short letters and reading the first sentence of the longer letters and only continuing if it is of interest to them. In recent weeks the policy of publishing mainly short letters seems to have changed and more space is allotted to lengthy missives. This is a pity, as it precludes comments from so many writers who would like to express their views on many topics. – Yours, etc, MARGARET BUTLER, Booterstown, Co Dublin. The books of David Walliams Sir, – I am certainly no fan of his, but HarperCollins’s withdrawal of David Walliams ’s back catalogue should trouble even those with no wish to defend him or the allegations. A publisher may refuse future work and must protect its staff. Withdrawing completed books is different: it suppresses art because its creator has become unacceptable. Where does that principle end? Caravaggio? Michael Jackson? Philip Roth? Pulp Fiction? If Harvey Weinstein’s crimes contaminated every Miramax film, the work of thousands of innocent actors, writers and craftspeople would disappear with him. Art does not inherit every sin of its creator, and allowing it to remain available does not endorse everything that creator has done. The issue is not whether Walliams deserves another contract. It is whether corporations should retrospectively decide which existing art may remain available. Accountability for people; criticism and context for art – not erasure. – Yours, etc, JUSTIN DEEGAN, Maynooth, Co Kildare. Reassuring discussion Sir, – Congratulations on your recent Conversations with Parents podcast, which touched on school avoidance. Supporting a child through this makes for very challenging parenting. I have personal experience of this. Mary O’Kane’s view on school not being for everyone was reassuring. We need more of these helpful discussions for challenges that face parents today. Well done Jen Hogan, who clearly has her finger on the pulse, and to all involved. Would love to hear more of these types of discussions. – Yours, etc, ELIZABETH BENNETT, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin. Travelling to Nigeria in 1960 Sir, – I read with interest your Weekend article on “ The last Irish nuns in Africa ” by Caitlin Kelly (September 12th). It brought back the many years I have spent in the developing world. My late wife Dympna and I set off for Nigeria in March 1960. I had obtained a contract with the colonial office in London as an architect in the health section of the Ministry of Works in Kaduna. Nigeria got independence in October 1960, so I suppose I became a Nigerian civil servant. Dympna, whom I had met in UCD in the 1950s, began teaching in a missionary secondary school and worked for the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles there. We continued that life until we left Nigeria in October 1965. As a result of that experience, I became a consultant to the World Bank for health and education projects in Asia and Africa. In that capacity, I did about 40 one-month missions over some 20 years and even got back to a very different Nigeria in the 1980s and 1990s. Most of the education work was in Africa and the health work in Asia, so I found myself consulting often with Irish and French missionaries. As a result I have never ceased to be astonished at the dedication and tireless work of those missionaries, throughout Africa and southeast, east and central Asia. They were often working voluntarily or at most on the reduced salaries of “local employees”. Today when I see African or similar foreign priests celebrating mass, I see them as the visible proof of the success of the untiring missionaries of the 20th century. I see it as a remarkable time and a wonderful experience, – Yours, etc, CYRIL BOWMAN, Athenry, Galway. ‘I am just going outside’ Sir, – Further to your correspondence about famous last words, it is worth recalling those of the British Antarctic explorer, Lawrence Oates, in 1912 (“ What would your last words be? Here are some of the best deathbed one-liners” , Unthinkable, September 14th). He was one of Robert Falcon Scott’s five-man expeditionary party who made it all the way to the South Pole in January 1912, only to discover that the Norwegian, Amundsen, had beaten them to it five weeks earlier. As the Britons retreated northwards after their bittersweet polar achievement, they were dogged by all sorts of difficulties – hampered by blizzards, food shortage and injuries – so that strength and morale began to flag. Scott’s diaries revealed that Oates had already been aware that, because of his frail condition, he was becoming a burden to his comrades and he had appealed to them in vain to carry on without him. Oates soon decided to take matters into his own hands. It fell to Scott to record his words as he left the tent and abandoned himself to the Antarctic elements: “I am just going outside and may be some time.” His prediction proved true. Inasmuch as he could, Oates walked to his death on his 32nd birthday. His body was never found. – Yours, etc, PÁDRAIC HARVEY, An Cheathrú Rua, Co na Gaillimhe. Back in the car A chara, – Jennifer O’Connell provides an accurate reflection of the experience of using public transport (“ My train fare may go up by €606 and that doesn’t include the seat ", Opinion, September 19th). I will add poor signalling at rural stations to the list of complaints. Where I live, in Roscommon, it is pure guesswork as to which platform the train will arrive. In the absence of staff and a basic signalling system, punters invariably line up on both sides of the platform asking each other are they on the right platform. The ones who guess incorrectly must then rush over the old Victorian bridge with their belongings to catch the train. As the Government attempts to move heaven and earth to build the MetroLink , we punters look in bemusement as the general service deteriorates and fails to add enough capacity or add basic signalling. They do have enough money for a nice PR campaign, of course – “your journey counts”. Well, you can count me out, I’m back in my car. – Yours, etc, ALAN COAKLEY, Roscommon town Politics and art A chara, – There have been interesting letters on the Ed Sheeran controversy ( Letters , September 19th). However, we are asking the impossible of our singers and musicians. They are there to entertain us, not signal their virtue or force their opinions down our throats. Put another way, would we like to listen to our politicians play guitar and sing songs? Bob Dylan said it well back in 1965: “I’m a song and dance man.” – Yours, etc, CIARÁN MACGUILL, Clichy, An Fhrainc.