Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. In the course of her speech she states:

It is not an austerity treaty, as some voices in these Houses and beyond have claimed spuriously. The treaty states nothing at all about how tax should be raised or about how much tax each member state should raise,

We have run our economy, very successfully over a long number of years, until very recently on the basis that a low tax rate brought in more money, but it is clear that this is not acceptable to both Germany and France. Will the Minister of State put our minds at rest, in spite of all that has been said here, that no more pressure will be exerted through this treaty on our low corporation tax rate, which brings in far more money than would come in otherwise? The belief that we have a competitive Europe is very important and I believe that others do not understand that.