Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

During his visit to the United States will the Taoiseach raise with the Secretary of State and President Obama the ongoing appalling oppression of Palestinian people in Israeli prisons, in particular, the case of the 30 year old Palestinian, Arafat Jaradat, who died on 25 February having been in an interrogation centre of the Shin Bet, the secret police of Israel, for five days? The autopsy findings showed he had been subjected to extreme torture. Does it worry or concern the Taoiseach that he is going to celebrate with the leaders of the United States who endorse and give enormous support to a state with a regime such as this and which has 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 200 children, although it claims to be a Western democracy? Will the Taoiseach raise that issue and demand the release of Palestinian prisoners, as well as highlight the other critical issues that need to be addressed, including the right of Palestinians to have a state?

The Taoiseach has said he will be discussing bilateral economic relations and meeting many major companies, as well as the President and leading Administration figures in the United States. Does he plan to raise the issue of the taxation paid by United States multinationals in Ireland or elsewhere on the globe? Does he have plans to raise with President Obama, in particular, the gross abuse of tax avoidance loopholes whereby major companies use Irish tax laws and the tax laws of other countries to avoid paying the headline rate of taxation?

Will the Taoiseach raise the extreme example where one major Internet company recorded €9 billion in profits in Ireland but paid €3 million in corporation tax in 2011 through using tax avoidance measures in this State and other countries? Part of that money was made in the Middle East and Africa which desperately need these resources for their hard-pressed people, public services and communities but are cheated of income that should be paid in taxation. Does this worry the Taoiseach, particularly in an era when he is foisting the property tax on low and middle-income workers and the poor and when these resources are desperately needed by the poorest of the poor in other countries who are being robbed of them? Will he raise that issue with a view to changing as a matter of urgency this policy in the interests of justice, if nothing else?

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