Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I want to ask a few questions under subhead A5 on the job announcements in IDA Ireland-supported client companies. The one that jumps out is Uber. If people do not know, Uber is a very large, smart company that provides an application for people to perform taxi business. As I understand it, 100 jobs were initially created, mainly in the Limerick area. My research into Uber and its record shows that the company has created some 30,000 jobs - it did not create them, as such, but it operates with some 30,000 drivers in Britain and Ireland. However, there are several pending court cases around Uber's treatment of its workers and whether it fulfils contracts with them. Perhaps the Minister will clarify if she is at all concerned about that record and the fact that Uber is being taken to labour relations bodies, particularly in Britain, for illegal deductions from the pay achieved by some of its drivers and for paying well below the minimum wage in many cases. I also understand that in dealing with an app from a company such as Uber, a driver does not necessarily have to have a public service vehicle licence as normal taxi drivers must do.

As we know, the deregulation of the taxi industry in this country has caused severe pressure and competition on those who have gone to the bother of training, paying the expenses for their licences and fulfilling their commitments to buy the plates. Will the Minister comment on why IDA Ireland money – public money – should be supporting what appears to be totally unethical workplace practice? What are the value returns for us?

Let us consider page 26 under subhead 5 and some of the companies that we are allegedly supporting. It seriously begs the question of why public money is being used to finance organisations such as Credit Suisse, Amazon or Coca Cola. These are giant multinational corporations which, surely to God, should not need the support of IDA Ireland. If they do, what are we getting back from them in return? These companies are also availing of low corporation tax and other tax breaks as we have seen recently with other companies.