Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Ombudsman and thank her for her presentation.

I agree that transparency is hugely important. If one is dealing with colleagues on an international or European level, it is always good to know their hidden thoughts, and whether the views they express in one particular arena are the same as those they have expressed secretly or might be influencing things in a different direction at home. I am particularly interested in the European Medicines Agency. We have had some grief over the cost of medicines. I have complained for a long time that Ireland does not seem able to avail of the benefits of a 500 million-people market in relation to the cost of medicines, particularly in relation to trial medicines, new discoveries, orphan medicines, all of which has caused severe problems whereby the manufacturers sell the medicines at an agreed price until they become accepted and established when they then change the pricing structure. In recent days, the Minister has made arrangements with some of the smaller countries in the EU in an effort to bring about some improvement in the area.

It is very important for us in Ireland, but it is equally important for every country in the EU. Every state in the EU, big or small, there is no difference, is entitled to be able to buy their medicines at a price that reflects the type of market in which we live. After all, if we were not members of the EU, presumably we would not get medicine at all or we would do so at only a particular pricing structure. There is still a tendency to do that. I strongly support Ms O'Reilly's activities in that area and hope there will be more of it. A huge benefit accrues to all member states across the EU from achieving a result where medicines are priced within an acceptable range.

I wish Ms O'Sullivan well in the area of Brexit. In the matter of transparency, Ms O'Sullivan will have to get into what people have in their minds as well as their documents and their policies. I know that she is well capable of doing that. Any good ombudsman or journalist knows that it is crucially important in current circumstances to know where the other side is coming from in the negotiations that are now taking place. It is not on this meeting's agenda, but there has been considerable discussion about tax justice recently and the 12.5% corporation tax. Very powerful people in Europe with powerful associations have concluded that it must be dismantled or else we must collect taxes on profits earned in other jurisdictions, some of which are in Europe. I strongly oppose that. It has the potential to do us considerable damage. Last week, an international aid organisation was opining on this along side a major, multi-billion dollar international investment house. I do not know what the association is between the two, it is somewhere in the back of my mind that they appeared to complement each other in their goal of destroying what is seen as being an advantage to Ireland. Incidentally, I am in favour of equality of taxation, I have no difficulty whatever with that, where I do have difficulty is if it comes in under a guise of something else, which is to discourage foreign direct investment in this particular country.