Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, the House should note that most of these questions were tabled four months ago but are only now up for answer. The Taoiseach would have to agree that this is entirely unsatisfactory. It is partly because the Taoiseach has halved the Taoiseach's questions periods. That was a decision of this Government. Traditionally, before this Dáil, questions to An Taoiseach were answered twice a week. Now they are answered once a week. Also, when the Taoiseach cancels some sessions he does not reschedule them. I accept that he has to cancel the question sessions sometimes, for obvious reasons, but they are never rescheduled. Every Opposition party and group has asked for this to change and for something to be done about it but the Taoiseach seems to be quite happy to let the questions lie, unanswered, for months on end. It is unsatisfactory from a parliamentary point of view.

Davos this year included the ECB President, Mr. Draghi, making a major statement about the European economy and financial system. According to his analysis, the fundamental reasons for the improved economic situation in member states are the general improvement in the international economy and critically, low ECB interest rates. The recent OECD review has confirmed this, although the Government spun the report in order to ignore this key point. President Draghi also said, however, that the recovery is still extremely fragile and that there are major down side risks. Why are we not addressing those risks and why do we not have any proposals to address them? Why is Europe being left with policies that were agreed two years ago, which have not succeeded in rejuvenating the eurozone economy?

President Draghi has confirmed that members of the ECB council want the Central Bank of Ireland to sell its holdings of Irish bonds earlier than was announced last year. This would end the entire claimed benefit of the promissory note deal and lead us to losing billions of euro. The minutes of the ECB meeting around the time of the promissory note deal explicitly stated that the ECB noted the arrangement between our Government and the Central Bank of Ireland. Has the Taoiseach made representations to President Draghi on this issue? Has the Government done anything in response to this particular request from members of the ECB? Has the Irish Government asked the ECB to return profits on Irish bonds to us? This is being done for Greece but not for Ireland. Has the Taoiseach formally tabled this issue? I have asked this question on numerous occasions but the Taoiseach keeps avoiding and fudging an answer. Has he raised that issue? Greece got such a deal and accommodation from the ECB and Ireland should too.

In the context of the Davos meetings with major international companies, the Taoiseach has already said that corporation tax and taxation structures were discussed, as were the very important policy pillars that lead to companies investing in Ireland. The foreign direct investment side of the economy has been the most resilient throughout the entire economic crash because of long-established policies not just on corporation tax but also on investment in education, research and development, which has been transformed in the past decade and has been a key factor in attracting inward investment. I have no doubt that those companies would have placed a strong emphasis on education, research and development. How does that square with the cuts that the Government has implemented in education across the board? The ending of postgraduate grants, in particular, is having a very severe impact on the numbers taking up postgraduate work and going further into research and development. The lack of any secure tenure or career options for people in research into the future also impacts on our overall environment for research investment.

Finally, on corporation tax, the OECD and so forth - what is our bottom line? The common consolidated corporate tax base, CCCTB, has implications for foreign direct investment. A Department of Finance analysis some years ago indicated that it could be far more harmful to our foreign direct investment strategy than changing the rate of tax itself. We need a stronger position and greater clarity from Government on that issue. The Government has agreed to discuss it and to facilitate the processing of the file on CCCTB. It could have a very significant impact on our attractiveness as a base for inward investment.

Was there any discussion at Davos about the banks themselves, their activities, the performance of their members and so forth? There is much talk about competitiveness but it seems to impact on the citizen only, in the form of new taxes, cuts and so forth. The citizen has no sense that the elites within the banking system and those who made decisions in auditing firms and so on are having the same burden placed upon them as the ordinary citizen during this crisis. That is the genuine view out there. People see large companies getting significant write-downs on debt but for those in mortgage arrears, there is very little comfort in many cases. In the most recent case of the IBRC sell-off, mortgages have been sold to an entity that does not have to adhere to the code of practice. The Governor of the Central Bank told the Taoiseach that he did not want to go ahead. There is no protection at all for those mortgage holders and their situation is very uncertain indeed. One of the problems with big gatherings such as Davos is they are conducted at a certain macro level but they do not really get what the citizen on the street has to deal with.

Finally, I put it to the Taoiseach that the real crisis in developed economies in the West is the suppression of middle incomes. We are looking at a shrinking middle class across the eurozone. Competitiveness is a code word for downward pressure on wages across the board in the forlorn hope that we can compete with China, India and other very low-wage countries. A fundamental change and reappraisal of where developed economies want to go in the future is required. Our direction is very unclear and that is giving rise to political developments across Europe which do not auger well in terms of how Europe evolves into the future.

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