>If the Facebook UK staff relocated to Dublin then the loss to the UK economy would be exponentially worse.
Can anyone say that for certain?
How do you know, for example, that the same staff they'd employ wouldn't end up working for a company that does pay a large amount of corporation tax, leaving the UK's tax coffers substantially better off than they'd be otherwise?
I'm not saying they wouldn't - I'm sure they probably would - but that wouldn't stop there being 362 fewer roles in the UK.
If the industry in the UK continues to grow then yes we would be better off, but the fear is that more companies would learn from Facebook's example and relocate, taking the growth with them.
Can anyone say that for certain?
How do you know, for example, that the same staff they'd employ wouldn't end up working for a company that does pay a large amount of corporation tax, leaving the UK's tax coffers substantially better off than they'd be otherwise?