Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That shows a fundamental misunderstanding, namely, that anything to do with development is charity. Development is actually mutual assistance and support so that we develop economies, countries, societies and people to ensure they achieve their full potential. Not everybody wants to remain unemployed. People want an active, useful and participative life in which they have a job and businesses just as we want it for our people.

Globalisation and international developments in financial services and tax law have been moving at an incredible pace over the past decade. Specialisation and all the ramifications in tax law are understood by very few people. I have to admit to being hooked on my iPad and mobile telephone. I see other Deputies checking their pocket possibly to see whether their iPhone is in place. These devices are part of our modern world and, inevitably, they will generate very significant profits that need to be appropriately taxed so that the fruit of those inventions is shared by all societies. We must do this on a multilateral basis.

A couple of years ago during the tenure of the previous Government, I, along with the Taoiseach, the former Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, and other Ministers, went to the OECD and spent a very long period of time with the officials there, particularly tax experts, going through how we can bring tax justice not just into the Irish system but into the global system. Some people here may recall that when Pascal Saint-Amans, who is the OECD expert in this area, visited the Oireachtas committee in this building in 2013, he said that Ireland is not a tax haven. When we came into Government, we took the double Irish and the Dutch sandwich off the menu.

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