Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We can pause the agreement. Everybody has signed up to this on the understanding that we trust one another. Unfortunately, in today's world apparently we cannot. There are signals from the US that it may renege on this. Despite what the Minister said, of course we are obliged to adhere to international agreements and, as a bloc in Europe, we want to remain committed to that but there is a fear and a worry that in the event of the government, president or Congress changing in the US, as the Deputy said, there may not be the same willingness in the new administration to adhere to something that we would expect them to honour.

In the absence of that, I am asking the EU to rethink and to pause from our perspective to allow the Commission to meet and discuss this matter with a view to finding some mechanism to safeguard against it. In recent times, we have seen the dropping off of corporate tax take as a result of the global situation. It will go through the floor altogether if this comes to pass.