LAST UPDATE | 22 Nov 2025

Eoghan Dalton Reports from Johannesburg

MICHEÁL MARTIN HAS disputed a stance put forward by businessman Denis O’Brien that the government is indirectly contributing to people seeking asylum in Ireland thanks to its tax regime for major technology companies.

At a conference in Dublin earlier this month, O’Brien said that development in poorer African countries was being harmed by tech firms booking profits in Ireland on sales taking place in other states.

The billionaire businessman said this is a factor in “gross inequality” and is “the main reason why African immigrants take huge risks in dinghies to reach rich European countries”.

But the Taoiseach has disputed whether the tax system may be contributing to people leaving their homeland in Africa to come to wealthy countries such as Ireland.

“I wouldn’t agree with that. The fundamental drivers of migration, in my view, are war, climate change, authoritarian governments and traffickers. I mean, there is a rich trade in trafficking human beings, which has to be stopped,” he told reporters at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Martin is attending the G20 summit in the city this weekend, where the broader issue of how to boost economic activity in the Global South has been on the agenda.

In his opening address, South Africa’s leader Cyril Ramaphosa said that “thriving economies” were needed to lift people out of poverty.

This would go hand in hand with greater investment and trade, the president told G20 leaders, “generating the revenue needed to invest in public goods”.

O’Brien has led philanthropic work in Africa and other parts of the world throughout his career.

And while the Digicel founder said the global tax system is “perfectly legal”, he questioned in his speech whether it was “modern-day digital colonialism”.

Addressing O’Brien’s point about the factors driving migration to Europe from Africa, the Fianna Fáil leader said quality of life and a lack of democratic structures were key factors behind the rise in asylum claims in recent years. 

“The other side of aid and development programmes is try and find the best way to make life worthwhile for people living in Africa,” Martin said.

If you are a young Eritrean, the prospect you face is conscription to the army at 15, 16, years of age. Democracy is the best system that can prevent the level of migration that is currently happening.

The number of International Protection applications rose to reaching 18,500 in 2024. This year, numbers noticeably reduced with 34% fewer applications by November compared with the same period in 2024.