Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are leading from the front. As I said, we are the only country in the world which has a 20% spend from our food aid programme directly focused on dealing with the elimination of hunger, malnutrition and under-nutrition. There is no other country in the world which has that level of spend from its overseas development programme and, on behalf of the Government, the Tánaiste has confirmed that we will maintain that. It is a striking figure when one speaks to those people from the Africa nations who have concerns and have to deal with this on a daily basis.

The Deputy would be the first to come in here if the Government were to be associated with a tax which could prove to be discriminatory were it not applied in a global sense. Ireland has been very clear on this. We do not support a financial transaction tax that would put our economy or our financial services at a distinct disadvantage over others that are close to us, namely, London, Paris, Frankfurt or wherever. Were this to be applied in a global sense, that would be a different matter. I do not speak for other leaders. We talk to them and with them about these issues-----

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