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

This is about an important tax issue. There has been a great deal of comment on this by American politicians, and when we visit America and meet the President, we must be robust and say that we are entitled to have a corporate tax rate of 12.5% and to structure our tax regime to attract inward investment. Many of these companies are no longer US companies; they are global companies that trade internationally. One only has to look at the incentives offered by Singapore and Israel. They outstrip any that an EU member state can offer in state aid and tax structures.

Companies such as Intel and Apple have had deeply embedded functions and an embedded presence in Ireland for a long time and they have employed thousands over the years. Apple, for example, at one time manufactured more products in Ireland than in the US. These are the realities we have to push back with. During his meetings with business interests, chambers of commerce and so on, was the tax issue raised with the Taoiseach? We have to push back more assertively and effectively on these issues because damage is being done to Ireland's international reputation. A proactive narrative needs to come out of Ireland, robustly arguing for our position. Did the Taoiseach raise this in the US?

Recently, the European Commission asserted that it intended to examine Ireland's corporate tax regime. What about the Dutch and the French? If the Commission wants to start looking at one country it had better look at every member state, because every country does not play by the same rules or have the same structures.

With regard to Northern Ireland and his discussions with Dr. Haass and the US, has the Taoiseach reflected on what some perceive to be the hands-off approach he has adopted up to now regarding Northern Ireland? Is there a need for him and for both governments to become more hands-on in the negotiations about the past and the issues that were part and parcel of the Haass process? The situation within the Executive and the Assembly is not what it should be, and many people in the middle ground have been disappointed by the lack of progress on a broad range of issues. The politics of the Assembly still appear to be very partisan, with the parties primarily engaged in electoral gain as opposed to breaking the mould on social and economic policies. There has been a drift, and people are commenting on that. Will the Taoiseach indicate what is the American perspective on creating new momentum in the process to get talks going?

Question No. 18 asks whether the Taoiseach attended any fund-raising meetings in the US. I presume he did not.

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