Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I am sorry but I am putting it in context. The motion concerns corporation tax and why it is or is not appropriate to discuss this matter today. I am setting that context, pointing out it is hypocritical to continue in that line when the party has indicated it will do the same or worse when it is in power.

In regard to taxation or any other aspect of domestic economic policy my party will not accept being dictated to by the IMF or the EU. That includes not being forced to increase the rate of corporation tax. My party is the only party which is consistent on that issue because we are the only party in this House which is not willing to implement anything the IMF tells us to. We are also the only party in the House that opposed the Lisbon treaty which surrendered further control over this State to Brussels. In fairness, that appears almost irrelevant in the context of the current abject surrender to the IMF.

Is Fine Gael telling us it is acceptable for the IMF and the EU to tell us to sack thousands of workers or sell off State assets but not to raise corporation tax? Clearly, that is what it says. Does the Labour Party agree with Fine Gael on that point? If not, how will that party resolve the issue if and when it is in position on the other side of this House? Will the Labour Party use the excuse it has been placed in a straitjacket and has no choice but to do beastly things to the people who elected it?

We oppose all diktats from the IMF and Brussels that have to do with destroying our public services or raising corporation tax. In that we are at least consistent. As far as I am aware, no party currently advocates raising the rate of corporation tax. Why waste time in the middle of an unprecedented economic calamity having all of us say what everyone knows already? Perhaps there is a reason but it does not lie in this House. It may lie in the north west of the country where a by-election is being held. I say that only because in announcing this motion Deputy Kenny specifically asked my party to state what our position is on corporation tax. All he had to do was ask our good friend Google who would have told him exactly what our policy is. He might even have picked up the telephone and put the question to my office or to the office of any of the Sinn Féin Deputies. How much help that would be to Deputy Kenny's candidate in Donegal South West is another matter. The motion is a red herring and was such when Deputy Kenny raised it. If it was tabled in an attempt to score political points or to influence the electorate it was misplaced and badly researched. It is also a bizarre topic on which to base a debate in the current circumstances. No party here advocates increasing corporation tax and in the context of what is coming down the line it is hardly the most pressing issue.

Much has been made of the part the tax rate has played in attracting overseas investment. That is fair enough. However, perhaps we ought also to reflect on the reasons the tax exists in the first place and why this State has become so dependent on overseas investment. The reasons have to do with the historical failure of those in this country who have real wealth to invest it productively here. Anyone familiar with the economic history of this State between the 1920s and the 1950s will know successive Governments beat their heads against a stone wall in attempting to get the so-called Irish capitalist class to invest in manufacturing in this country. This was at a time when a huge proportion of the assets held by the Irish banks were invested overseas and through the London Stock Exchange. At one stage Seán Lemass accused them of ritual economic treason. What would he say today if he was here and what would he think of his party's capitulation to the very same traitors? When he went out on the morning of Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, with the Dublin brigade of the IRA, did he ever conceive that one day a so-called republican party would indenture the Irish people in the interests of those economic traitors, as my good friends, the Garda, has called them?

It was the anti-national refusal of those banks to invest in Irish development that persuaded Lemass to seek overseas investment. That is why we have the current taxation structure and why it is necessary. It was the anti-national behaviour of the banks and major speculators which landed us in the current mess. While the productive base of our economy was largely driven by overseas capital, such people were gambling in property and finance.

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