Well, I think you are making a very valid point. Germany and France sure like throwing their weight around and have earned plenty of appropriate criticism for t

Well, I think you are making a very valid point. Germany and France sure like throwing their weight around and have earned plenty of appropriate criticism for their actions. They will most likely continue to do so. Just like with the US on a global level, large, influential economies will often bully smaller ones into situations favourable to their own goals. I do not know what the point of the European Single Market was. In fact, I'd be interested to hear someone with the know-how tell me. Was it to create a trading zone where the same rules applied to everyone? Or was it just supposed to ease trade across borders by creating some kind of customs framework and abolishing tariffs, etc.? Now the point I was making wasn't specifically about Ireland. I could have said Italy as well. I just wanted to point out that paying taxes is a huge deal. Not just for filling the coffers of the European Union, but as a symbol of everyone paying into the social contract. If people see nothing but giant corporations exploiting the legal systems of countries to dodge taxes, people think they could do so, too. It disenfranchises the populace and just ends up giving more rise to populism, which is possibly the biggest scourge on society at this moment in time. Populism leads to fascism. The whole tax malarkey plays into this. It's not the root cause of populism (not sure there is one) and it's certainly not Ireland's fault that they managed to attract business through favourable business tax rates, but something needs to be done about the blatant tax avoidance by these international players and I think this is a good first step, which will surely see some refinement down the line. So, again, I think you make a valid point, but I also believe that my original point stands also. By the way, there's one country that was afraid enough of tax regulation that they fooled a sufficiently large proportion of their populace into voting for one of the most insane political decisions of the last decades. In a non-binding referendum, which is somehow, miraculously, being implemented with a kind of fervour and passion not seen since the Apollo program. (While actually important societal issues would never be put up to a referendum and even then, if people voted the wrong way (aka, against short term financial gain, or archaic doctrine), would simply go ignored. Hmmmm....)