Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The EU faces a number of challenges at this time, including the Brexit negotiations, climate change, economic recovery following Covid-19, the conflict in Syria, the faltering EU-Turkey migration agreement, and threats to the rule of law in Poland and Hungary. We are fortunate that Germany takes over the Presidency of the European Union next month. Chancellor Merkel's wisdom and experience will be called upon in spades for the next six months.

I have only two questions. My first question is in relation to the Next Generation EU initiative. This, we are told, will be a mix of grants and loans. To repay this, the European Commission has brought forward new own resources proposals, including, for example, an extension of the emissions trading system based on own resources to the maritime and aviation sectors, a carbon border adjustment mechanism, a Single Market levy and a digital tax. What is the Irish position in relation to these own resources?

A digital tax would, of course, cause problems for companies here in Ireland such as Google and Facebook. Is our economic model, which relies on a low rate of corporation tax, under threat? The OECD is due to complete its examination of this issue by the end of the year. The European Commission seems intent on introducing a new EU levy on digital services, as well as a minimum corporation tax, if the OECD process fails. While Ireland of course has a veto, the pressure on us to yield on this point is increasing all the time. Does all of this pose another challenge to our economic recovery and to our foreign direct investment? We are heading for a perfect storm and I would be interested in the Minister's views on that.

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