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

President Obama has indicated grave concern about the manner in which US multinationals avoid paying tax, not least tax to the US, and has expressed concern about an international architecture of tax avoidance facilitated by various states around the world. Ireland is constantly cited in media and business analysis in the US and elsewhere as being part of this architecture which facilitates tax avoidance by enormously profitably multinationals which do not want to pay their fair share towards the economies and societies that host them and provide them with workers who generate those enormous profits for them.

The Taoiseach's answer that our corporate tax rate is transparent is patently nonsense. I have put questions in the past week or two to the Minister for Finance, which were part of a series of questions because I intend to keep at this issue, to ascertain what is the effective corporate tax rate. The Minister said he cannot tell me. How can the Taoiseach say our corporate tax rate is transparent when the Minister for Finance says he cannot tell us what the effective tax rate is? He cannot even tell us how much the corporations are paying in tax. Eurostat suggests that they are paying 6.8%, which is half of the headline rate.

The Taoiseach needs to examine this issue seriously. He needs to address it and discuss with the American Government how we can deal with the problem of multinationals which do not want to pay their taxes, as well as any role Ireland may be playing in facilitating them.

I have a question about Palestine. The Taoiseach expressed his concern and raised with the then Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton, the issue of the ongoing blockade of Gaza. This is welcome, but we need to begin to match words with deeds. I refer to the UN report produced at the end of last year which considered the likely humanitarian situation in Gaza by 2020 if something was not done about the blockade. It suggests Gaza may be uninhabitable by that date. It states the humanitarian crisis arises directly from the blockade and the devastation wreaked on Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. It is an issue which requires action as a matter of urgency rather than words. The Taoiseach says he raised it with the then Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton, and that he is concerned about it. In that regard, I understand the Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence, having spent one day with Irish troops in southern Lebanon, is at the Herzliya conference in the Dan Accadia hotel in Israel where he will spend the next three days. He is attending a conference hosted by the Institute for Policy Strategy and co-sponsored by the US Embassy in Israel. The Herzliya conference is a gathering of neo-cons and Zionist supporters who, frankly, have never shown much interest in the plight of the Palestinians. Is the Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence attending the conference in an official capacity? Will he be saying at the conference that he believes the siege should be lifted? Are the Taoiseach's words of concern being matched by the Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence in attending this conference which is full of neo-cons and uncritical supporters of Israeli policy? Will the Minister challenge the brutal policy being inflicted by Israel on the people of Gaza?

I ask the Taoiseach about the case of Marian Price. I express extreme disappointment that he did not raise the issue. Is he aware that a parole hearing for Marian Price will be held this week? The Northern Ireland Office is arguing that she should be held indefinitely because of what it claims is so-called confidential information on her. This is confidential information to which even her lawyers do not have access. This is an Irish citizen who is being held indefinitely and whose rights are being trampled on. I ask the Taoiseach why he did not raise the matter with the then Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, somebody who regularly expressed concern about human rights and the situation in Ireland and who played a part in the Northern Ireland peace process. This is a flagrant abuse of the human rights of an Irish citizen who is being held without trial and, effectively, interned. Why is the Taoiseach not raising this issue as a matter of urgency when the woman concerned is sick and particularly this week when a parole hearing will decide whether she will be kept interned in prison or released, as she should be? She is no threat to anyone and there are no proper or justified reasons for keeping her in prison.

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