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

No, but I challenge the Deputy and others to talk to the workforces in these companies, including Intel and the pharmaceutical companies. I was the Minister with responsibility for enterprise for four years. Who are we up against? It is not other European states but Switzerland, Israel and Singapore. People from Singapore were knocking on every door on which representatives of IDA Ireland were knocking.

That is what we are up against. We cannot change unilaterally or arbitrarily target certain companies. I say this at European level. There is protectionism in Europe. We have to be very careful not to change taxation policy unilaterally in a way that would favour larger economies in Europe. That would be the net outcome of some of what is being proposed. I accept that global companies should pay tax, but there has to be a global resolution of this issue. Equally, we have to revise and review our industrial policy. What worked for the last 40 years might not work for the next 30, in the light of what is happening in America and Europe and the changes that are occurring globally.

There is an element that keeps targeting and hitting companies that have been providing thousands of jobs in various parts of the country for well over four decades. I would like to see the alternative blueprints others might have for creating similar numbers of jobs. How do they propose to facilitate the creation of thousands of jobs in the decades ahead? I am prepared to work on that issue. The attacks on our largest employers have been far too simplistic and negative so far. What does the Taoiseach understand to be the likely timing of future movements in the Apple tax case?

See this speech in context