Dáil debates

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

4:00 pm

Photo of Enda KennyEnda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

There are 30 questions and, to be fair, quite a number of them are in the name of Deputy Martin. The point should be made that the questions are actually more pertinent now than they were earlier because there is the agreed text from 25 of the 27 countries in respect of the fiscal compact and the new treaty.

Several of these issues could have been dealt with by way of written question if the Deputy required answers before now.

The discussion that took place at the last meeting followed intensive discussions after Christmas by officials of all the member states and focused on various wordings, texts and so on. The Irish focus in this was to protect our national interest in the context of the new treaty. There was no discussion regarding the European Central Bank, Ireland's corporate tax rate or a common consolidated corporate tax base. These matters were not raised by any of the 27 countries represented, 25 of which were working on the wording of the treaty. The reason for this is clear, namely, that these issues are not relevant in so far as the new treaty is concerned. The focus of the meeting was to define the parameters of the fiscal treaty and compact and to find forms of wordings that would progress our objective, which is the development of the European Union, the eurozone, the potential of the Single Market and so on.

President Sarkozy has his own view on taxation matters, as does every other leader. There is a variety of views on these issues across the Union. Several countries are very much opposed to fiscal transaction taxes. Some completely oppose a common consolidated corporate tax base. Others want to see changes in taxation measures. What I see happening here, at last, is that the political heads of the various countries have come together and found agreement in respect of a text, which has now been approved by 25 of them. The European Council of Finance Ministers has been discussing the situation in Greece for the past 24 hours. I welcome the fact that an opportunity now exists to move on from that.

To reiterate, the informal meeting was strictly about the fiscal compact and treaty.

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