Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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3. To ask the Taoiseach his plans to discuss concerns regarding the 26 million persons who are unemployed across Europe; the actions that need to be taken at the next EU Council meeting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22126/13]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach if he will be distributing any position papers prior to the June EU Council meeting being held; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22131/13]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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5. To ask the Taoiseach the details of his discussion with Mr Wolfgang Schäuble; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22132/13]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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6. To ask the Taoiseach if he gave any position papers to Mr Wolfgang Schäuble when he met him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22133/13]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach if he requested support from Mr Wolfgang Schäuble for Germany to support empowering the European Stability Mechanism to retrospectively compensate member states for taking on banking losses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22134/13]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach if he directly discussed a separation of bank and sovereign debt; if he directly requested Mr Wolfgang Schäuble support for this position; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22135/13]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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9. To ask the Taoiseach if he distributed papers at the meeting in Brussels on 6 May 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22383/13]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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10. To ask the Taoiseach when the next EU Council meeting is taking place; and if he will outline the key issues likely to be taken. [23970/13]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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11. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the European Council summit on 22 May. [25199/13]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Taoiseach if he raised the issue of youth unemployment at the European Council summit on 22 May. [25200/13]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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13. To ask the Taoiseach if he raised the issue of the retrospective recapitalisation of the Irish pillar banks at the European Council summit on 22 May. [25201/13]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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14. To ask the Taoiseach if corporate tax was discussed at the EU council meeting on 22 May 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25466/13]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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15. To ask the Taoiseach if the tax regime for oil and gas here was discussed during the talks on energy efficiency at the EU Council meeting on 22 May 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25467/13]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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16. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his meeting with Wolfgang Schäuble; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25468/13]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I propose to answer Questions Nos. 3 to 16, inclusive, together.

On 29 April, in the course of a visit to Spain, I had a bilateral meeting with the German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schäuble. We discussed a range of major EU and Presidency agenda items including the negotiations on the multiannual financial framework, MFF; progress on banking union; the growth and jobs agenda, particularly the European Union's competitiveness; and developments in the euro area. I also updated Minister Schäuble on economic developments in Ireland, progress made during the Irish Presidency and ambitions for the rest of our term.

In relation to unemployment in the European Union, the compact for growth and jobs provides a clear framework for the key actions necessary to return our economies to sustainable growth and job creation. We must ensure that it is implemented. There will be a full review of progress on this vital work at the June meeting of the European Council, one year on from its adoption.

The agenda for the June meeting of the European Council is being prepared in the normal way. President Van Rompuy prepared an annotated draft agenda for consideration by last week's meeting of the General Affairs Council, which was chaired by the Tánaiste. The draft agenda includes conclusion of the European semester process for 2013, with the endorsement of country specific recommendations; assessment of implementation of the compact for growth and jobs; and progress on banking union. The meeting will also consider President Van Rompuy's response to the four questions on economic and monetary union that he was asked to explore by the European Council in December. The meeting will also consider developments in the EU's relations with strategic partners and on enlargement. In due course, President Van Rompuy will circulate draft conclusions for the June European Council, which will be discussed by ambassadors in Brussels and subsequently by Ministers meeting at the June General Affairs Council, which the Tánaiste will again chair. In the usual manner, at each step in the process, Ireland will continue to input its views, as appropriate.

The Tánaiste and I met President Barroso and President Schulz in Brussels on 6 May to discuss the way forward on the MFF. I did not distribute any papers. We agreed to start formal negotiations between the Presidency, the Commission and the Parliament on the MFF, and in parallel to negotiate on the draft amending budget for 2013. This was a problem for the Parliament. An Irish Presidency compromise proposal on the draft amending budget was endorsed by the meeting of the ECOFIN Council earlier this month. The proposal put on the table a first tranche of €7.3 billion out of a total ceiling of €11.2 billion. We agreed that negotiations on the MFF would begin with a trialogue on 13 May to focus on matters of particular concern to the Parliament, as set out in its 13 March resolution on the MFF, namely, flexibility, a review clause, own resources and unity of the budget. It was also agreed not to re-open the figures on administrative expenditure under heading five of the MFF and to speed up negotiations on the staff regulations, which are part of the MFF legislative package. The first trialogue took place on 13 May. A further trialogue, in which the Tánaiste is participating, is taking place today. The Irish Presidency aims to get political agreement on the MFF in June.

I attended the meeting of the European Council which took place in Brussels last Wednesday. As I will be making a statement to the House on this meeting tomorrow, I will merely give a short summary of its proceedings. Discussions at the meeting focused on energy and on tax policy in the context of the EU's efforts to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness. On energy, leaders agreed on a series of guidelines in four fields that should help boost competitiveness and assist us in responding to the challenges of high energy prices and cost. These are urgent completion of a fully functioning and interconnected internal energy market; facilitation of the required investment in modern energy infrastructure; diversification of Europe's supplies; and enhanced energy efficiency. In my intervention, I highlighted potential gains from energy efficiency. Our discussion of tax policy had a particular focus on how to improve the efficiency of tax collection, and how best to tackle tax evasion and fraud. This discussion largely reflected the agenda set by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and Commissioner Šemeta in their joint letter on tax issues. There was a strong endorsement of our ambition as Presidency to reach agreement on VAT fraud counter-measures in June. The Council also briefly discussed Syria, reaffirming its commitment to a political solution. It adopted a decision to continue with the situation whereby each member state nominates a Commissioner.

I wrote last week to each of my colleagues in the European Council as we enter the final stages of the Irish Presidency. I thanked them for the excellent level of co-operation which we have received and highlighted a number of areas on which we would appreciate further support over the coming weeks. To this end, I identified a range of files on which we hope to make progress, including measures that will boost employment and assist businesses to grow in the Single Market area, especially the digital single market. I also highlighted the importance of concluding a draft negotiating mandate for the transatlantic trade and investment partnership between the EU and the US.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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As the Taoiseach will be aware, public discontent with the EU is at its highest level ever and, with 27 million people unemployed, nobody believes it is taking serious or urgent action to help. I have to mention the plague of youth unemployment, particularly in countries such as Greece and Spain, which have youth unemployment rates in excess of 50%. The escape valve of emigration has kept the rate in Ireland at between 29.5% and 30.5%, although many of the people who are leaving Ireland are in fact the fathers of people in their mid to late 20s and are following their sons and daughters to places like Canada and Australia.

We also looked at the enviable record of Malta, the Netherlands and Austria, where youth unemployment levels are particularly low. We are used to hearing lists of what has been agreed at summits but it is increasingly clear that a difference exists between the statements and what is happening on the ground.

A good example of this is the proposal for project bonds agreed last year. I ask the Taoiseach to explain the reason not one project bond has commenced. We hear a great deal about the need for stimulus and all of us, including the Taoiseach, agree on the issue. I could identify a number of major national projects for which project bonds would appear to be a potential solution but nothing seems to be happening.

Will the Taoiseach explain the reason the agenda for last week's summit was so limited? Why were no issues related to the major economic and financial issues of the moment discussed? Is it acceptable that EU leaders could meet at this time without discussing immediate action on employment? While I am conscious that other Deputies wish to speak, I would appreciate an opportunity to contribute again on this group of questions.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Certainly.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Ó Fearghaíl asked some good questions. It is completely unacceptable that 28 million people are unemployed in the European Union. No leader can be happy with that situation. Depending on competitiveness and whether budgets are under control, the position as regards unemployment and employment will vary between countries. I visited Spain and Portugal recently. The rate of unemployment among young people in Spain is 57%, which is a horrendous problem and would be an enormous challenge for any prime minister. Portugal also has a significant level of unemployment among young people and Greece announced last week that more than 50% of its young people are unemployed. What is to be done? One issue that has to be dealt with is the European Union budget for the period from 2014 until 2020, which is known as the multi-annual financial framework or MFF. Under the current proposal, a €6 billion fund has been allocated for addressing youth unemployment. Following the European Council meeting, there is a direct focus on countries preparing effective programmes to provide opportunities for young people and front-loading this allocation, which they cannot access until the MFF has been agreed. This is the purpose of the Tánaiste's visit to Brussels today. The Irish Presidency hopes to secure agreement on the multi-annual financial framework in the next couple of weeks.

This is an urgent matter. When one speaks to the Austrian Chancellor, Dutch Prime Minister or leaders of other countries which have low rates of unemployment, Germany for example, one finds that they have a structure in place for providing young people with training and apprenticeships. In Austria, for instance, when a young person decides to leave the formal education system there is a structure in place for channelling him or her into an area that would be of interest and in which he or she would develop skills and so forth. As a result, the level of youth unemployment in Austria is very low - perhaps 3%, 4% or 5% - whereas it is more than 30% here and we also have continuing emigration.

The agenda of last week's meeting was limited because the issues were of such importance. When one starts to discuss issues with 27 different member states, all of them will have a view. VAT fraud costs in the order of €1 trillion each year and systems need to be put in place to deal with the problem. The digital world has clearly moved ahead of the capacity of taxation systems to be able to catch all of these activities. The issues of VAT fraud and tax evasion were the subject of significant discussion at the meeting. Some comments were also made about multinational companies, which had implications for Ireland. While individual companies were not mentioned, I was happy to clarify for the European Council that Ireland wants to be part of an international movement in setting new international codes of practice, whether this is the FATCA system in place in the United States or a new code that emerges globally. This is an issue on which European leaders are now focused.

Deputy Ó Fearghaíl made a point about energy, an important issue. If we do not understand that energy prices are impacting on costs and, therefore, competitiveness, we will not be at the races. I can testify that serious developments in the United States in the areas of fracking, shale gas and extra drilling have led to a decline in the country's energy dependency. It is expected that the United States will become an energy exporter in the next decade and the country's energy costs have dropped by more than 30%, whereas they have increased by the same amount in Europe. As a result of these developments, major investment can take place in the United States at fixed-term prices and with relatively low energy costs. This has implications for jobs in Ireland and every other country. European leaders must agree on an integrated, interconnected European grid for energy. Ireland is at the end of this pipeline, which has significant implications for those who are working in manufacturing and industry. Three quarters of the meeting was spent discussing energy and decisions were made on which we hope to follow through in June.

The other issue discussed was on securing agreement in principle from countries that were very secretive about taxation and sharing information on tax matters. As I stated, we need to recognise that the digital world has swiftly moved far ahead of the capacity of individual national tax systems to cater for it. There is a need for a political focus from leaders to deal with this issue and this was accepted in principle by everyone who attended the meeting.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Was the Taoiseach in any way uneasy, to say the least, when the European Council meeting moved on to a discussion on taxation? I note from the communiqué issued after the summit that measures to fight tax evasion, fraud, etc., were discussed "in order to protect revenues and ensure public confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of tax systems." Leaving aside the issue of fraud for the moment, did the Taoiseach give an explanation in regard to the Irish tax system and mounting evidence to show this State is used as a taxation haven by many multinational corporations? I am not referring only to the hearings in the US Senate. On the day before the summit, the London editor of The Irish Times, the respected journalist, Mark Hennessy, pointed out that Marks & Spencer accounts for goods sold and handled in the United Kingdom through Ireland to avail of the 12.5% tax rate, in other words, to avoid paying significant tax in Britain. How can this mechanism be described as anything other than consistent with a tax haven?

I put it to the Taoiseach that the State is also a tax funnel in that it acts as a facilitator for transfusing revenues that are raised around the world, including in the poorest countries, through the tax mechanisms available in this State and onto places such as Bermuda. In the case of Apple, for example, which is a massive corporation, a tax mechanism known as the "double Irish" enabled the company to keep its international taxes to 3.2% of foreign profits in 2011, 2.2% in 2010 and single digits for the past half decade. These figures are taken from The New York Times. As a result of these mechanisms, the Apple corporation is sitting on $100 billion in accumulated profits.

Is the Taoiseach aware that development agencies and organisations such as, for example, Christian Aid have studied this matter in some detail and that they very convincingly highlight how this type of tax avoidance and minimisation of tax liability - with the help of the Irish taxation system - is cheating people who live in the poorest countries on Earth of resources which should be used to develop their societies? How can he stand over that type of activity, which is immoral by any standard? What did he say at the EU summit in respect of this matter or did he say anything? I am not asking him to just contradict some of the specific allegations that were made in the US Senator about a 2% deal, which, very possibly, are not correct. However, the substance is correct, namely, that the double-Irish mechanism and other instruments facilitate a huge minimisation of massive levels of tax liability by these most powerful corporations and that people in this country and throughout the world are thereby cheated of resources which could be used to develop their societies, create jobs and attract investment. If such investment were forthcoming, it would be possible to ensure that some of the 26 million people throughout the EU who, tragically, are unemployed could get back to work.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The discussion which took place at the European Council was constructive and positive in the sense of reflecting an understanding that the world has changed utterly in the way multinational companies do business in different jurisdictions. From our perspective, I stated before I entered the meeting that if the matter arose, I would deal with any issues of transparency or accountability in respect of Irish tax law in so far as corporate tax rates are concerned. I also stated that no special deals were done with any individual company and that this is because our rate of 12% has been set out in law. The latter has been deemed to be an effective rate of 11.8% or 11.9% by the World Bank.

The issue which arises relates to how to deal with this matter. Clearly, it cannot be dealt with by any individual country. That is why Ireland was the fourth country to sign up with the US in respect of the sharing of information. Ireland has participated very strongly in the analysis carried out and group hearings held by the OECD. Ireland wants to be at the forefront in the context of individual and collective decisions by countries to put in place a new international code in respect of tax. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and EU Commissioner Šemeta recently sent a joint letter to the Finance Ministers of the other 26 member states in which they outlined seven different areas where concrete action can be delivered in the short term. Four of those have been adopted and significant progress has been made in respect of the others.

Deputy Higgins will be aware of the OECD's four indicators in respect of what constitutes a tax haven, namely: having no taxes or only nominal taxes; a lack of transparency; an unwillingness to exchange information with the tax administrations of OECD member countries; and an absence of substantial activity in the country concerned. It is clear that many of the multinationals which have been mentioned in the recent past employ substantial numbers of people - on high wages - in this country. In addition, there is no question with regard to the substance or extent of activity in the Irish economy. As already stated, this matter will not be resolved by an individual country. However, it is being dealt with by the OECD - at European level - through the base erosion and profit-shifting process. This is the appropriate mechanism and we fully support it.

The Deputy referred to the hearings which took place in the US Senate. The relevant report was clearly written to address concerns regarding the US taxation system as distinct from any other. Its final sentence reads "Congress can change those incentives by closing offshore tax loopholes and strengthening U.S. tax law". This emphasises that the central issues addressed in the report are specific to US as opposed to Irish tax law. While the report's central focus concerns perceived problems in the US tax system, it does contain some misleading and some inaccurate references to the Irish tax system. As the Deputy pointed out, there are references in it to a special rate of less than 2% being negotiated with the Irish Government. It is not possible to negotiate a particular rate in Ireland which deviates from the two main statutory rates of 12.5%, for trading income, and 25%, for non-trading income. There are no special rates for particular companies or types of companies. For trading companies, taxable profits are calculated under domestic rules which are based on internationally accepted principles that are themselves mainly influenced by the OECD.

The Deputy also referred to the double-Irish mechanism. The profits charged in Ireland reflect the functions, assets and risks that are located here by multinational groups. Payments to non-resident companies represent the expected higher remuneration of extremely valuable assets owned outside the State. Ireland could not, therefore, expect to retain the remuneration of these assets.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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It facilitates tax evasion by them.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Our treatment of residence of companies for tax purposes, as determined by the location of management and control, was settled long before it could have any relevance to current international structures. The structures described have been arranged by US-owned groups of companies in order to take advantage of specific aspects of US tax law and also the differences between the Irish and US approaches to determining the residence of companies for tax purposes.

As already stated, Ireland strongly supports the base erosion and profit shifting project. We are moving to a point where - at least in the context of the discussion on tax at the European Council - there is agreement that there is a requirement for a new international code. To my knowledge, all countries participating at the Council meeting last week accepted that principle. This matter will be discussed again at the June meeting.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I call Deputy Adams.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Excuse me, I am next.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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No, Deputy Adams is next. If Deputy Boyd Barrett looks at the Order Paper, he will see that.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I apologise.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The summit meeting - in respect of which I tabled a number of questions - must have been very disappointing. There are major crises occurring throughout the world. I refer to events in the Middle East, the ongoing situation in Cyprus - which does not appear to have got much mention at the summit - and the massive problem of youth unemployment. The figure for the latter here, approximately 30.4%, is substantially higher than the EU average of 22.9%. We all know the effect of emigration in dictating that figure. London beating Sligo last weekend is proof that a generation of GAA players-----

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It is proof of the level of footballing skills in Ruislip.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Three months ago the European Council agreed to launch an EU-wide youth employment initiative. What concrete steps has the Government taken to further this initiative?

There is also an ongoing crisis in agriculture. As the Taoiseach will be aware, EU Agriculture Ministers are meeting at Dublin Castle to try to arrive at a deal in respect of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Is the Taoiseach of the view that a deal will be completed before the end of the Presidency? Our position is to support a redistribution of funding towards the majority of small and medium working farmers.

Currently, 2% of recipients take more of the overall funds than the bottom 40%. The appropriate term is "working farmers" or "active farmers". Will there be an opportunity to debate this matter in the House before the summer recess?

I wish to revert to the issue of the fodder crisis. I met members of the Louth IFA and listened to their concerns. The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, predict that it could cost farmers €1 billion, with beef and dairy farmers losing up to 60% of their annual incomes. Efforts have been taken to try to deal with the crisis and I commend everyone involved, but it will spill into next year. Has the Government considered seeking emergency support from the EU Solidarity Fund to address this crisis?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Adams raised a number of interesting points. Of course, youth unemployment is a scourge. Clearly, that is why the European Council, for the first time ever, put €6 billion into the multi-annual financial framework, MFF. That is spread out from 2014 to 2020, which is of no value to somebody who is 16 or 17 years of age and facing unemployment in any country, be it our own, Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc.

The discussion last week was on whether we could work together on really proactive programmes for young people for training, upskilling, pre-work training, etc. and front load this to make some impact and to give young people a sense of hope and confidence that these things actually work. There was a very strong view about that. This is why it is important for us as the Presidency to view as critical getting the MFF through during this Presidency. If it fails and we end up having to do annual budgets that take up three or four months and on which everyone cannot agree, at least the Council has made its decision.

The European Parliament has to give its imprimatur to the budget, otherwise it cannot function. The European Parliament, which has a very valid case, wants to consider unity of budget, flexibility, own resources and a mid-term review because who knows what the economies of Europe will be like in 2017 or 2018? That is a legitimate aspiration with which we can deal as the Presidency, but we need the support of the Parliament. Elections will be held next year and some sectors are beginning to play games. I hope they can settle down at the trilogues over the next few days and get agreement on this because it would be very important to get it through.

I might say that the draft amending budget - because there is a ceiling on the deficit of €11.2 billion - is an important element of the work we have been doing. The Tánaiste and I went to meet President Barroso and President Schulz and got agreement on that. It was pushed through by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, at ECOFIN for €7.3 billion of a first tranche. We hope to get the draft amending budget and the MFF through by July. Obviously, the Parliament will want to wait until the back end of the year to see what bills come in from the Commission for payment by countries of whatever remains, some €3.9 billion or whatever.

Central to this is youth employment. In our own country, we got an extra €150 million put in for PEACE IV, which impacts, as the Deputy well knows, on young people in sensitive areas in Northern Ireland.

The agriculture discussions are ongoing. They are informal. There is a fundamental principle of productivity. If one decides to pay a flat rate per hectare, whether there is productivity or not, one takes away the motivation and the very high incentive level and the high standards that we have achieved in Ireland. As there is a big divergence of opinion from eastern European countries to more developed countries in our agrisystem, which has an exceptionally high standard, what one does not want is a flat rate payment on a per hectare basis. It takes out that productivity element. For example, if one is running a 400 acre farm and a highly intensive dairy industry with very professional standards and someone is running 400 acres with very little activity, it would not be consistent with good agri practice to equate those levels of payment in the same way. It may well be that the discussions will take some off the very top and put it onto the bottom because reference years are different and new farms move into the system. One must retain the principle of productivity. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is very strong on that.

As to dairy quotas going, there has been movement in the banks because of the purchase of land and arrangements for new leases. If we do not produce extra, then some other country will. This opportunity is there for young farmers who will drive, with a sense of motivation, this end of the industry. That is why there is a backlog in the applications for agri courses and so on. That is why Glanbia put its money where its mouth was in terms of south Kilkenny with a major investment, which will create 2,000 jobs on family farms from Cork up to the Deputy's own constituency. I was very pleased to see last year that Kerry Group made its decision to invest €100 million in Naas, which will become a magnet for new food innovation and research and development for years to come. These are extraordinary developments by Irish companies.

There is a big understanding in the agrisector of what is happening. Yes, the fodder crisis is a difficulty and we will clearly have a problem again next year. I have spoken to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine about this and there will be an intention to run a scheme later this year with extra fertiliser driven to have more grass cut. That farmers must now put in cattle in September-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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June.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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They have not gone out yet.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----means difficulties in terms of extra costs, feedstuffs and all the rest of it.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Taoiseach, but I want to allow Deputy Boyd Barrett to contribute.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Healy-Rae. I have been-----

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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They have not gone out.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Will the Deputy stay quiet for a minute, please? Deputy Boyd-Barrett wishes to speak. We are short on time.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----down in his native county and I have seen them lying in some places contentedly in the fields. We want to see more of that.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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In very few places.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Over in the east.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Does the Taoiseach not believe it time to end the cover-up in which he and his spin doctors are engaged over the growing scandal of corporation tax avoidance by multinationals? Is it not a fact that he is trying to throw mud in the eyes of the public, Deputies and his European partners in a way that will do immense damage to the international reputation about which, as he has told us many times, he cares so much? The facts are coming out. As some of us have asserted for some time, as has become apparent to our European partners, as was put to the Taoiseach at the European Council meeting and as has been discussed in the US Senate, Ireland is a tax haven and is facilitating a staggering level of tax dodging by significantly wealthy multinationals.

The latest evidence came today. Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, a company registered in Ireland, made €1.8 billion in profit but paid 0% in tax. If it had paid 12.5%, we would have received €235 million, almost as much as the Government is planning to take out of the pockets of public sector workers. If Apple had paid 12.5%, we would have received more than €2 billion for the Exchequer. All we get, however, is sleight of hand whereby the Taoiseach claims that our rules are different because a company must be controlled and managed in Ireland. With a nod and a wink, we have agreed this little trick with the multinationals. Our light-touch corporate tax rules allow them to dodge billions or tens of billions of euro in corporate tax obligations at the expense of the taxpayer, who is being savaged by austerity, at the expense of tax fairness and tax justice across the world and at the expense of Ireland's international reputation.

After what happened at the European Council meeting and the US Senate and given the emerging facts, does the Taoiseach not believe it is time to end the cover-up and to stop prostituting Ireland's tax system for the benefit of multinational corporations?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is wrong. First of all, Ireland's corporate tax rate was not put to me in the European Council. As I told Deputy Higgins, before I went into the meeting I said that I would be very happy to explain anything to do with Ireland's corporate tax rate were the matter to be raised. It was not raised in the context of the discussion that took place on tax, on tax evasion and on VAT.

The Deputy is also wrong when he says that Ireland is a tax haven. I have clearly set out the four criteria that apply. Ireland fulfils all of the requirements to prove that this country is not a tax haven.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It fulfils all the criteria to prove that we are a tax haven.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The substantial number of workers in multinational companies in every constituency around the country are a testament to that. Deputy Boyd Barrett made the point that our corporate tax rate is a nod and a wink. It is a disgraceful comment from him.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The facts speak for themselves.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Our corporate tax rate has been in situ for many years.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Zero tax is paid by Apple.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It is transparent and absolutely above board. It is set out in statute law but Deputy Boyd Barrett does not seem to want either to adhere or to understand it. The effective tax rate is 11.8%.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Not according to the EU.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The corporate rate is 12.5%. It is 25% on non-trading areas. That has been a fundamental issue for us. As I said in response to previous questions, it is the international environment of other jurisdictions where multinational companies can apply. The report of the Senate hearings in the US referred specifically to US tax law and states that the US Government is in a position to close off the loopholes if it so wishes.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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This is going to blow up in our face.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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For our part, the Minister for Finance has cleared a letter to be sent through the diplomatic service of our ambassador in Washington for transmission to the chairman of the Senate dealing with the inaccuracies that have been reported-----

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The substance is true.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----and the allegations that this country is a tax haven and setting the record straight.

Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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I have repeated time and again that it is not clear whom Deputy Boyd Barrett hates more, the multinationals or-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Shush.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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From that point of view we are very proud of and very clear on how we deal with our corporate tax rate. Ireland will participate in working with our colleague countries both in the United States, where we have signed up to the FATCA agreement, and in respect of our European Union colleagues for the development of an international code that will bring transparency to the environment outside of our tax law. The matter is being attended to by the Minister for Finance and a letter has been cleared in so far as the Senate committee which dealt with the matter is concerned.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Is Deputy Higgins going to run for the US Senate? Deputy Higgins has no horizons.