Just three companies paid almost 50% of the state’s corporation tax in 2024. This increased concentration “raises the uncertainty around future receipts,” according to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the state’s budgetary watchdog.

This overreliance has left the state exposed, while the government continues to prioritise multinational corporate interests over building strong state industries that could deliver stable jobs and economic security, and offer a basis for real independence, according to Garrett Greene, Workers’ Party representative in Cabra-Glasnevin.

Greene said: “Having an economy so heavily reliant on such a small number of multinational corporations is a recipe for disaster. This set-up effectively leaves the state at their mercy. The government knows this yet only seems to encourage it.”

“The expansion of state-owned industry, rather than its continued sell-off, is essential if we are to move beyond this precarious situation. A state construction company, for example, could tackle the urgent need for genuinely affordable housing, strengthen the state’s asset base, and create well-paid, stable jobs in the process.”

“While working people are suffering through crises of housing, healthcare, and cost-of-living, the state offers one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe, fights to reject €13 billion owed to it by Apple, and opts to put money away in a rainy day fund for the future, ignoring the problems of today. If we don’t actually benefit from this set-up, what is the point of it?”

“This total reliance on American multinationals also effectively allows Washington to dictate not only our economic policy, but our foreign policy too. Only two years ago, then-US Ambassador Clare Cronin threatened ‘consequences’ if Ireland passed the Occupied Territories Bill. This relationship clearly undermines the state’s sovereignty and independence, and we need a strong, state-led economy to change that.”

“Over a century of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil rule has left us in this sorry state. They do not believe in Ireland’s ability to be independent, and instead offer her up as a great little country to do business in, skimming just enough off the top of American and European profits to keep the shambolic state afloat.”