Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I welcome the delegation from IFAC. I want to ask about the report released today which asserts that we are the biggest tax haven in the world. The figures quoted suggested that there is something like the size of the whole UK economy or twice the size of the Russian economy in funds based here. Following on from that Yanis Varoufakis and others have been saying that we are riding on the back of European taxation policy and that we can raise funds in a different way from everybody else. Do the witnesses see these claims and this kind of discussion outside our country as a significant risk factor for Ireland? Linked to that are the proposals Emmanuel Macron makes in his book Révolutionin respect of, for example, the common consolidated corporate tax base, CCCTB, becoming the bedrock of future financing of European budgets.

Are there significant external threats from the way people perceive the way we manage our economy and, also, the European changes? Reference was made to spending drift. What is spending drift? Is it spend on much needed additional beds and the consultants that go with them, orphan drugs for rare diseases, budgets for social housing and pay equality in the public service? On the figures in regard to fiscal space, are we down now to €2.6 billion or €1.8 billion in terms of manoeuvre? It was stated that it is up to us as politicians to decide whether in terms of additional taxation yield we opt for sustainable growth of our expenditures, but the witnesses have been very coy about how we might balance an increased expenditure budget, such as is needed for the crisis in housing. I do not agree with Deputy Eamon Ryan. He was a senior member of the Green Party-Fianna Fáil Government that drove the country off the cliff. It is annoying to hear comments about connections to rural areas like the north west or my ancestral county of Wexford and that we will never have a proper road network linking all parts of this island. As I said, the witnesses are being very coy about how we would balance an enhanced budget. Research and development credits was mentioned. Would there be any scope, for example, for additional personal taxation for the 300,000 tax units who earn more than €100,000? The Taoiseach tells us that people who earn more than €100,000 are not necessarily rich or better off.

On the rainy day fund, why do we need it in 2019? We already have the strategic investment fund, such that we would be only taking money from one fund and putting into another. Why would we handicap ourselves in 2019 given the many areas, including health, housing, education and so on, we need to address for our burgeoning population and our younger population? I agree with a sovereign wealth fund. We did have one but the Government of which Deputy Eamon Ryan was a member, the last Government and this Government raided a chunk of it and blew it or, as the late Peter Mathews would say, tore it up. Why 2019 and why not return to an enhanced sovereign fund at a future date?