Madam, - In your Editorial (October 31st) entitled "Seagate and the global economy" you make the following point: "Multinational companies owe allegiance to no flag. They are hostages to no nation." One would have thought that these sentiments were the prelude to an Editorial focusing on the dangers and morality of allowing unregulated and undemocratic conglomerates gain even greater control over the global economy.
Instead, the Editorial focused on their short-term advantage to the Irish economy. However, since the Editorial was published Waterford/Wedgwood glass announced the probability that they are relocating to the Czech Republic. Apparently a workforce with high-calibre skills and a national corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent was not enough of a buttress to encourage them to maintain their business in Ireland.
The emergence of the so-called new industrialised countries and what the Editorial refers to as "progressive trade liberalisation", which is surely a euphemism for rampant capitalism, will ensure that whatever advantage Ireland once had in this area is being quickly eroded. That's why EU tax harmonisation is not necessarily a bad thing, for it has the potential to rein in multinationals and guarantee greater oversight over their activities, which is facilitated by the current anarchic situation.
As far as fiscal sovereignty is concerned, has the Editor forgotten the importance of the Cohesion Fund in developing the economy and infrastructure of this country?
That development, incidentally, was funded by the largesse we received from the taxes paid by the people of Europe over the last 30 years. So the argument that the EU is somehow encroaching on Ireland's independence is to say the least extremely dubious, given that we are still recipients of Cohesion Funds. So-called fiscal independence was never on the agenda or mentioned when we went with the begging bowl to Europe.
For the workers of Seagate and Wedgwood and the countless thousands more who will be thrown on the dole queues by multinational companies in their quest for profit and world domination, it is imperative that a more mature and insightful critique of the multinational phenomenon is provided rather than acting almost as an apologist for so-called mobile international investment.
- Yours, etc,
SEÁN, RÓISÍN WHELAN, Ormond Keep, Nenagh.