Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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I will be brief, but I want to respond because some strong language is being thrown around. There are suggestions that people are trying to protect multinationals and that members of this committee are afraid of questioning them. As someone who wrote to the Chairman and asked for this sub-committee to be established, I am certainly not afraid of asking questions of any multinational corporations in Ireland. I doubt if any members of this committee are afraid of doing so. This is not about protecting multinationals or being afraid of them, it is a procedural issue. The motion that Deputy Dara Murphy tabled, which is what we agreed in private session, is that we would do this in the most sensible and effective way.

I only wanted to respond to some strong language that is being thrown around to the effect that members of this committee are somehow afraid of doing the good work of the Oireachtas. Unfortunately, this sort of thing will make it more difficult for the sub-committee to do what it needs to do. This committee has shown - for example, by inviting in the public interest directors - that people with a wide variety of backgrounds and different political views are capable of working together towards a common consensus. Once we fully understand this complicated set of international taxation laws and movements of money, it is my intention to request that this committee should bring in the multinationals. It is a question of process.