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Like the Bahamas, Ireland's tax policy is coming under a global spotlight

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UN special rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Professor Philip Alston

UN special rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Professor Philip Alston

UN special rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Professor Philip Alston

I realise it's a bit odd to be writing about the Irish tax system while eating grilled fish at a beach shack in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. I'm in this tax haven to give a speech about the economic challenges facing small countries when old certainties start to crumble. Specifically, in the case of the Bahamas, this has to do with changes to global tax conditions and the likely impact on the economies of the region as the giant in this part of the world, Cuba, opens up to commerce.

These people know all about commerce because it was a cornerstone of the unspeakable "Atlantic Triangle" trading regime of the 17th and 18th century. Guns and basic machinery were exported from England to Africa in exchange for humans (slaves). It is difficult to know how many fortunes of so-called "respectable", old mercantile families were made from this ghastly trade.


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