Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will reply to the Minister. We value foreign direct investment, FDI, jobs in south Tipperary and west Waterford. Merck has been there for 50 years and there are other FDI companies that we also value. The statement that we cannot even have a report or express our thoughts on a report in case companies flood out of the country is, frankly, beneath the level of debate required. That is not a fact, as we saw with the closure of the double Irish loophole. Governments resisted calls for its closure for years, as Deputy Boyd Barrett alluded to. I mean no disrespect whatsoever to the officials, but I wonder are they so deep in the bunkers of the Department of Finance that they do not want anyone looking at them. One would have to be a peeping Tom to get in. They are minding all these secrets and ideas that cannot be allowed out.

I have another example of things that are beneath the Minister's office. The Rural Independent Group requested a meeting with him to present our budget submission. He refused point blank to meet us. We made several such requests. We are a group of six Deputies elected by the people. We went to great effort to put together our pre-budget submission. The proposal for a meeting met a point blank refusal. Before the Minister responds to tell me otherwise, I know he offered a joint meeting involving the Regional Independent Group and us. The Regional Independents did not want that and we did not want it. We got no meeting because the Regional Independent Group did not want us at its meeting. One can understand that because we are two completely separate groups. We were closed off from the Department of Finance. I have fond memories of attending meetings with the former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, God rest him, and others. However, the Department must now be in a bunker-like mentality if we cannot even discuss something or give an indication of ideas about anything because there may be spies watching from the Merrion Hotel to see who is going in or what is happening. It is farcical to say that a report could not be done because a certain opinion might be expressed or that is contents might be misinterpreted as an indication of what might happen in next year's budget. That does not cut it with me. It is reprehensible that the Minister did not meet us, as a group, in advance of the budget.