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

-----were at Davos.

The Davos event is one which Taoisigh have been attending for 20 years. Over this time, the hype has escalated but the actual output is becoming less and less clear. It has become more and more of a repetitive ritual. It is necessary, but I am not sure that it changes a whole lot when it comes to global policy or the evolution thereof. Every year, the Taoiseach of the day meets a particular list of investors and does interviews with a particular list of news channels. It is important that, as a country, we do this. We have to be there. However, it is certainly reasonable to question the degree of attention paid to it and evaluate the outcomes more objectively than we have been doing to date.

The issue of taxation, including proposals for digital taxation, arose on a number of occasions. Has the Government conducted or requested a specific impact study on such an initiative? I have asked about this before and I would be grateful for an answer. I know that the Taoiseach attended a session with Bill and Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation. At the end of his reply, the Taoiseach indicated that he met a number of individuals. Did he meet with those whose names he read out collectively or separately? What was the subject matter of the conversations where Ireland is concerned and, indeed, generally?

Finally, I make the point that the Ireland is a small country. Its industrial policy from the late 1960s, based on open access to free markets, has fundamentally altered the trajectory of our economic development since that decade, when Taoiseach Seán Lemass began the opening up of our country. It seems that those who are advocating that we unilaterally change course have an obligation to come up with an alternative model, one that would have similar outcomes for the historic development of industry, both multinational and indigenous. We can certainly do better on the indigenous side. However, there is no doubt that no matter how many people find them disturbing, the policies - tax policies et alia- have had an impact on this country, to the benefit of many working people here.Many of the other countries who are complaining are themselves quite adept at organising situations whereby they gain advantage, in their national interest and in the interests of their citizens.

I believe in a global approach to this. The global corporations have to pay more, and I would have much preferred it if the global elite did not turn on Ireland, but rather the corporations turned on themselves, and asked themselves some basic questions about what they can contribute globally. That is not restricted to their charitable foundations, and some of them have very good charitable foundations. Rather, this concerns the ways in which governments and the global corporations interact, in a globalised world which is different to that of previous decades.

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