Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a couple of points in the short time available to me. There is a need for a different economic model of which the European Union could be the driver. Two recent reports from Oxfam have certainly highlighted tax injustices involving businesses, multinationals and corporations avoiding and evading tax. It is the developing countries that are most vulnerable to the negative effects of these tax policies. The more recent of the reports presents data on the distribution of global wealth, confirming that the poorest half of the global population has less wealth than was previously thought. Eight billionaires - they are all men - have the same wealth as half of the world or 3.6 billion people. This concentration in individual wealth drives poverty and inequality and the EU could play a vital role in such a different economic model by vigorously implementing measures to tackle tax avoidance.

The OECD with the base erosion and profit sharing project and the EU Commission country-by-country reporting is certainly the foundation of progress but there is a need to go further. We must accept the requirement for all multinational companies to publicly publish the country-by-country reports for each country in which they operate. Such publications would certainly send out a message on tax avoidance, shell companies and tax havens.

My second points relates to Palestine. Before Christmas, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for the building of settlements to stop. A 2003 resolution also called for a freeze on all settlement activity, but what we have seen since then is an increase. This week we learned that a further 2,500 buildings or homes are going to be constructed. All of this is being done with blatant disregard for international law, including international humanitarian law. It is futile to pass resolutions that are simply ignored. This matter is going off the agenda of the EU.

I have been critical of certain aspects of the foreign policy of the former US President, Mr. Obama, but he made progress with Cuba by restoring more normalised relations. His visit there helped to open up travel. Many European countries have diplomatic relations with Cuba but we do not hear a combined collective European voice on the devastating effects of the embargo and its continuation. The President, Mr. Higgins, is going there in February. That could be an opportunity for Ireland to send a trade mission to Cuba. We could see to what that might lead.

The situation in Turkey is critical. We have seen the complete undermining of democracy and the right to peaceful protest there. This is all part of an anti-Kurdish agenda. Turkey has signed the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter of Local Self-Government but it is blatantly flouting those laws.

See this speech in context