Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Taoiseach's visit, or should I say pilgrimage, to Davos, can he give a picture of his discussions on taxation and international tax regimes, particularly as regards the changes in US corporation tax, the fact that there is a major effort by the administration in the United States to repatriate profits to the US and the implications of that, if any? The Taoiseach reported that he met the heads of significant US corporations, many of which are major employers in Ireland employing hundreds of thousands of people. What is his impression of the new US corporation tax system and its likely impact on Ireland over the next few years?

Second, I note that the Taoiseach had a meeting with Sheryl Sandberg, the boss of Facebook. One of the great changes in the democratic world over recent years has been the Trump-speak on social media coming from both the right and the ultra left, with personal trolling of many people involved in democratic politics. I do not believe Facebook is doing enough of what it has the capacity to do to try to reduce this destructive speech about democracies, both in Ireland and across the world. Extremes are being given free platforms by the social media companies. Can the Taoiseach tell us about his discussions with Ms Sandberg? We see the explanations in terms of hiring more people to monitor the hate speech, but there is a great deal of such speech, including in Ireland. It is extremely destructive, particularly for younger people, but also for the people who are doing this for the extremes of the right and the left. Did the Taoiseach manage to discuss that?

The great German writer, Thomas Mann, used to write about people going to the Alps in the 19th century to find cures for tuberculosis, TB. Now it appears there are pilgrimages by leaders of democratic countries to seek some type of fortune from the über leaders of capitalism in its most modern forms, who have made extraordinary fortunes. Did the Taoiseach discuss with them the possibility of introducing a global financial transactions tax - it would have to be done on a global basis - so some of their profits can be redistributed to people across the world, particularly in less well off countries?

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