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

The numbers that the Deputy quotes are no doubt correct but I am not quite sure where he is going with this. Everyone in this House will know from the stories that their parents or grandparents told them that for many centuries, Irish people went all over the world and sent back remittances to Ireland. I remember my grandmother, all of whose family went to America, telling me about the cheques coming from the US. Those were remittances coming home from Irish people who went to America. The Deputy mentioned that there is perhaps a distinction between those going to other EU countries and those who are not. If the Deputy walks a few metres across Merrion Square into Holles Street hospital, he will see a hospital full of midwives from India, nurses from the Philippines and doctors from Egypt, Pakistan and I do not know where. They work hard and pay their taxes. Out of their post-tax income, they send some money back to their families, who probably paid for their education. That is the way the world works, and it is the way Ireland worked and still will for decades. When it comes to money laundering, financial controls or tax evasion, of course all the normal protections and controls have been put in place by Revenue to make sure that any money that is taken out of the country was legitimately earned.

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