Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Cox. His depth of experience as an MEP and as President of the European Parliament is very valuable to us. He has covered an enormous amount of ground in his opening statement. He covered almost the whole of Europe and made various references to Italy, Holland, France and so on.

I am the Vice Chairman of the finance committee, which has separately been dealing with Brexit matters, particularly in respect of customs and borders; and opportunities for and threats to the financial sector in terms of London's huge contribution to the overall capital markets of Europe. A lot of people do not really appreciate just how enormous London is as a percentage of the total EU financial markets. It is in excess of 80% of the capital markets activity in Europe. It is much bigger than Frankfurt, Paris, Dublin or anywhere else. Although there are some opportunities, the threats are much greater. What are Mr. Cox's thoughts on that matter?

The land Border between the Republic and the North of Ireland is unique. There seems to be almost no other example across Europe of this kind of situation. Either the territory is not there or deals are done. Norway, for example, is not in the EU but has free movement of people and is part of the single market. There is no desire for a hard border. Can Mr. Cox see a situation in which the EU is happy to have no border between an EU state and a non-EU state? It has acknowledged that it wants to work with Ireland. Both Ireland and the UK have said they do not want a hard Border. To be fair, Mr. Michel Barnier has acknowledged that. Eastern European member states, however, do have borders with third countries. They have rules, regulations, policing and so on. Would an open border with the North be tolerated in that context?

Mr. Cox mentioned that the UK makes up 12% of the EU's population and 16% of its GDP. While I am not sure what percentage of the budget they contribute, there will clearly be a huge hole in the budget once the UK is gone. We will have to either raise the lost revenue from other countries, or cut the budgets. The UK is a significant net contributor. The argument about £350 million a day or a week, whatever it was, going to the British National Health Service was part of the lies that were put out by UKIP and others during the Brexit campaign.

All the polls and barometers show that Ireland is pro-EU as a concept. In the context of the banking crisis and things like the Apple judgment and the common consolidated corporate tax base, CCCTB, Britain was an ally to Ireland on CCCTB but will not be part of the discussions in the longer term. During his election campaign, Mr. Emmanuel Macron was talking about CCCTB and the perception in France that Ireland is doing things differently from everybody else and benefitting. Although we argue that it is all very open and transparent, the French have a perception that we have manipulated tax rates in a way that deprives them and that our benefit is to their disadvantage. How likely is it, in Mr. Cox's view, that CCCTB will be pushed? In theory, everybody has a veto and anybody can stop it. Six reasoned opinions were issued by member states expressing concerns about it, but if we are the only outlier our position will not be strong. Any reference to CCCTB at the moment would be very damaging to our budget. They are talking about calculating the tax on three bases, one of which is where the sales are made. Clearly, with our population, the sales are not made here. We may be manufacturing the stuff and have the employees here but we do not have the sales. Most of our corporation tax is foreign direct investment, FDI, based. Some 41% of it comes from the ten largest payers. If that were to change, we would have a huge hole in our budget. My concern is how to hold the line on CCCTB against the pressures that may come. Will other countries be understanding and refrain from pushing the issue?