Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I intend that the capital plan will be considered by the Cabinet as a whole because it will have an impact on all Departments. I am not suggesting that it will not be discussed by individual Cabinet subcommittees as well. My intention is that it will be discussed and approved by the Cabinet as a whole. I would welcome the involvement of this House in discussing the ten-year capital plan and the national planning framework, which are inextricably interlinked. I would like such a debate to take place in this House sooner rather than later so that the contributions of Deputies can inform the decisions that are to be made. Of course it is up to the Business Committee to make those arrangements. I have said in the past that I would welcome such a discussion.

As Deputies are aware, a public consultation is under way as well. We anticipate that the national planning framework and the ten-year capital plan will be published together on the same day. We aim to do this in December in the form of a new national development plan, which will run from 2018 to 2028. It is intended at this stage that all Departments will be covered by the plan for ten years, although these things can change. We will allow for at least one review, if not two reviews, during the course of those ten years to take account of the fact that things change over the course of a number of years. As Deputy Howlin has said, it makes absolute sense to have a longer-term perspective in transport.

We should also have a longer-term perspective on other matters. Take, for example, our national cultural traditions. The renovation of the National Gallery next door is most impressive. If we were to build a national theatre, for example, that would not be a three-year job but a longer-term one. It is not just transport which requires long-term planning; many other things do too. I take the point about the need to be flexible, given changes in demographics and other things.

It will be as detailed as possible. I hope it will be a similar model to the national development plans published under previous Governments. It will not contain every detail but I would like it to be as detailed as possible.

In respect of our corporate tax rate, I can confirm that President Trump's claim that we are proposing to reduce our corporation profit tax rate to 8% is indeed fake news. There is no such plan to do so. Our corporate profit tax rate is 12.5% and has been for a very long time, through changes of Government, recessions and periods of growth. It is as much that certainty which is important to businesses now as is anything else. Businesses investing in other countries, such as the UK, the United States or other parts of Europe, could invest in a country, and then governments may change and taxes may go up, down or up again. We offer certainty in respect of corporation profit tax. It is a good thing that the vast majority of parties in the House, including Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil, support its retention because anything else would damage our country, its employment prospects and its economy. Any uncertainty could be damaging, aside from a change in the rate.

We are totally committed to the OECD process on corporate tax. We are closing loopholes. Very smart people find loopholes in tax law no matter what we do. We have already closed the loophole in respect of the double Irish.

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