Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I mostly want to ask about the future, the budget and all the rest but, given the debate we had in the Dáil today and the Apple tax issue, I just want to ask a question. My question is for the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in particular, because he was around then. Does he and the Government regret the fact it did not take on the views of some of us in the Opposition back in 2013 when we asked the Government to bring representatives of Apple before the finance committee to question them about the company's tax affairs? The context, to remind the Minister, was the revelations that occurred over the Atlantic and the allegations that were made against Apple that it was using Ireland as a tax haven - Irish-registered companies - to siphon away loads of profits to companies that did not exist. In July of that year, I and Pearse Doherty both put down motions in the finance committee asking that representatives of Apple would be brought in here just to answer questions about those allegations. Those allegations led directly, as the Minister knows, to the Commission starting to investigate the issue that year and, three years later, starting the case, the legal action. The Minister, Simon Harris and Fianna Fáil TDs who were on that committee at the time, and Labour Party TDs, I have to say - sorry to rake up the past - all voted against even asking them in to answer questions. Does the Minister think in retrospect, given the decisions that have now been made, that he and the Government should not have done that-----