Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

Like Deputy Doherty, I think it would be quite important to get some facts and debate this matter more fully. However, I want to give the Minister the opposite advice to that of Deputy Michael McGrath for him to consider, which is precisely the argument that was put in the German Bundestag by the German finance committee members. They made the point that the one lesson we must learn from this crisis is the need to rein in the financial markets. The financial transaction tax is precisely a means of doing that. They argued that states which opt out on the basis of short-term advantage will suffer in the medium to long term because they will be more vulnerable to shocks in the currently extremely volatile - bordering on anarchic - international financial services sector. That is an important point for us to consider. If we all wait for someone else to jump, it will never happen and no action will ever be taken to have some level of regulation for states to clawback from the financial markets. We need an informed debate but, to be honest, my prejudice would be that we should join in with those who are trying to take action to regulate the financial services sector.

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