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

Why did the Taoiseach not raise the Marian Price case, on a humanitarian basis, with Prime Minister Cameron? It would take 30 seconds to do so. When he visits the United States, will the Taoiseach deal with these issues in a concrete fashion? One of his predecessors, Bertie Ahern, informed us that he constantly raised matters with the President of the United States and others when he visited that country. However, he was tiptoeing around the issues and was particularly concerned about not offending his hosts. Will the Taoiseach raise with the US President the ending of the siege of Gaza, which is critical, the need to deal with the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails? Will he also deal in a concrete manner with the so-called free trade agreement, which will mainly benefit multinationals and increase their profits? He should be firm in respect of taxation. Google made $9.07 billion in operating profits in 2011 but it only paid $3 million in tax.

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