Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Tang for his answers. However, a genuine comparison of the real effective tax rates in different countries is an absolutesine qua nonof this discussion. One might consider the histories of different countries and, for example, the historic accumulation of wealth by some countries - perhaps because they were significant world powers in earlier centuries and so on - and compare that with a country such as Ireland.

In the context of some of Mr. Tang's comments about Ireland, does he accept or understand that there are many reasons not exclusively and primarily to do with taxation why American or other global companies might choose to locate in Ireland? One such factor is that for the past century or so, Ireland has been an English-speaking country and my experience of working in America and other parts of the world has shown that culturally, that is extraordinarily attractive to the senior executives of such companies. I completely accept that the tax issue is also extremely critical but I am concerned that the common consolidated tax base is now quite old in terms of how capital formation now occurs and does not capture enough to meet the challenges that may arise if Europe is going to fall behind in regard to the creation of its own industries and the consequences of that for younger people or the implications of robotic development for future employment.

Mr. Tang made a very important point regarding regions. In the context of the rescue of Ireland, throughout Europe there are regions that do less well than, for example, those surrounding the capital of a country and it is very important for national politicians to try to develop such regions. Since Ireland joined the EU, it has made enormous investment in education so as to increase our attractiveness as an investment base for younger people. I have a problem with what was said by Mr. Tang regarding states being able to invest capital because Ireland does not have a huge accumulation of capital and has had a significant amount of debt since the crash. The EUROSTAT rules and the various relevant deals do not allow the Irish State to invest as much in capital as can richer European member states. We are completely hobbled by the German rules on spending.