Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I fully share the Senator's views on tax evasion and tax avoidance. We are doing a fairly good job in Ireland on eliminating tax evasion. Whenever I get a request from the Revenue Commissioners to plug holes that are being exploited by tax advisers, I legislate to plug those holes. Europe is also making progress on the issue, with automatic exchange of information on deposits in banks. Countries such as Switzerland are also being drawn in. A range of initiatives is being taken, but tax avoidance is a big industry, whether for corporate tax or other forms of taxation.

We will be carrying out a cost benefit analysis on the projects we submit for funding, but the European Investment Bank will also be assessing projects from a risk point of view and their capacity to pay a commercial return. It will be the organiser and deliverer of the investment fund. The fund is envisaged as a companion initiative to quantitative easing. Europe needs investment if it is to create jobs and cut into high unemployment levels, particularly youth unemployment, and to build the modern infrastructure required for a continent that is competing with the United States, China and many of the emerging nations. While €350 billion seems a massive sum, it is small by global comparisons. I hope the various initiatives will work together because we have gone through a very fallow period in Europe and we need things to start working. Almost everything has been tried at this stage.