Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I asked the Tánaiste about shadow lobbying in Ireland. In order to seek tax advantages in this jurisdiction, very clever people are engaging in shadow lobbying. It makes our tax system more unequal than it needs to be. The reason I raised the SILC statistics is that they show clearly how much further we have advanced by comparison with Northern Ireland, for instance, in making a more equal and fair society, particularly through social welfare increases in 2014 and 2015. The statistics and comparisons exist and people can read them.

If we want to make our society more equal, which is what everybody wants, we must have circumstances in which lobbying is properly accounted for. People are flying under the radar and lobbying in the shadows by lobbying people such as senior officials but also more junior officials at assistant principal and higher executive officer levels.

I asked the Tánaiste previously whether the Government will introduce a standing commission on taxation so society and the Parliament can be constantly on the watch for new tax-avoidance creations. Will it do so?

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