Gerry Adams
Ceist:1. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach when the last meeting of the Cabinet Committee on European Affairs was held; and when the next meeting is scheduled. [2760/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 1 February 2017
Ceisteanna (1)
Freagraí ó Béal (25 píosaí cainte)
The Cabinet Committee on European Affairs was re-established by the Government on 23 May 2016 and has met on three occasions to date. The last meeting took place on 12 December prior to the December meeting of the European Council. It is expected that the next meeting of the Cabinet committee will take place in advance of the March meeting of the European Council. A date has not yet been fixed for the Cabinet committee meeting.
I wish to ask the Taoiseach about three issues that may have been discussed at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on European Affairs. I know the Taoiseach is limited in terms of what he can say. The first relates to the motion committing this State to taking in 200 children from the former migrant camp in Calais. The Taoiseach knows that the Ministers for Justice and Equality and Children and Youth Affairs travelled to Greece and France to discuss this. Can we be updated on these plans?
I again raise the issue of Palestine and the Taoiseach's downright stubborn refusal to follow through on the Oireachtas motion that acknowledged the state of Palestine. He knows that the Israeli Government will build another 566 new settler homes in east Jerusalem. An internal report by EU member states' ambassadors to the Palestinian territories filed only last month has warned of a loss of hope among Palestinians. From my contacts in that region, I know that this is the case. The ambassadors' report called on the EU to send a message that Israel must stop its settlement policy. I have raised this question with the Taoiseach at least a dozen times. He has just dodged the issue, has given me a fudged and ambiguous answer and has refused to send a message of hope to the people of Palestine. Will he formally agree to recognise the state of Palestine, for which the Oireachtas voted?
The Ministers for Justice and Equality and Children and Youth Affairs have been in contact with the authorities in Calais in respect of Ireland unilaterally making an option to take in 200 unaccompanied minors. Sometimes they are referred to as children but in the vast majority of cases, they are not children but young adults or in their late teens or early 20s. The Ministers had quite a discussion over there. It was not discussed at the meeting of this Cabinet committee but that work is ongoing. The Ministers also visited Greece to take unaccompanied minors who in many cases were younger to Ireland as part of that.
The Deputy raised the issue of Palestine. This has gone on for a very long time. Either we accept the two-state solution or we do not. There has been a change of emphasis with the new US Administration. I have said previously that if there is a seriousness about dealing with this, it must be on the basis of the long-standing two-state solution, which we support. I have had representations from ambassadors from Palestine and Israel, both of which are contradictory, and I will not pronounce on them here. I have spoken to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade about this. It is an issue we need to consider. For Israel to announce unilaterally that it intends to build very significant housing on West Bank lands is not in keeping with the two-state solution or that process. It is a complicated issue.
The Oireachtas voted on this two years ago.
I am aware of that but I am being approached very vociferously about the matter from both sides in respect of very contradictory measures.
Has the Cabinet committee prepared any position papers on the impact of Brexit on Ireland. If so, will those papers be shared with us in this House? Has the Taoiseach read the comments by Peter Navarro, the top trade adviser to President Trump, where he attacked Germany and accused it of using a grossly undervalued euro to exploit the US? Does the Taoiseach have a view on that?
This committee has not produced a series of papers on Brexit options but the Brexit committee has. I have told the Deputy previously that as a party leader, I will see to it that he gets a full briefing from senior officials in respect of questions he raises or information he needs. A range of options have been looked at. The reason for the non-publication of these to date is because it is still not clear what the outcome will be in respect of the British Government. In respect of the British Prime Minister's speech at Lancaster House, clearly, Great Britain is moving from the Single Market. There is clarity there but there is no clarity regarding the British final proposition as to where it sees itself within the customs union. Obviously, this has implications for trade not just here but internationally depending on the nature of the proposition made.
I do not have the detail of the comments made by Mr. Navarro but, obviously, this particular Administration has a different view of Europe than the previous one. No doubt, this matter will be raised and discussed at the Finance Ministers' Council meeting and at the European Council meeting in Malta on Friday.
As the Taoiseach would accept, the EU is facing a deep and growing series of threats. Ireland is very much in the front line of these threats in terms of a move away from free trade and shared rule making and efforts to change tax rules. The pressure on the Government concerning the EU is dramatically higher than it has been at almost any time over the past 50 years. It seems that the Cabinet Committee on European Affairs needs to engage in a more reflective approach with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in respect of the EU generally and its future. We are seeing a lot of activity but not a lot of action. I put it to the Taoiseach that in six years, we have yet to produce a core statement of Government policy on the future of the EU. It is interesting that the head of the National Trade Council in the US has launched a significant attack on the EU. It is very clear that President Trump and his Administration have very negative views about the EU and seem to be joining with those on the far left and far right in trying to destabilise the EU.
What about the extreme centre?
They accused Germany of being a currency manipulator similar to China and others.
The absence of policy in that context is very serious and too frequently we are playing catch up. We are doing everything on a case-by-case basis. Does the Taoiseach not think it is long past time for a formal White Paper on the European Union to be produced by him and the Cabinet committee?
The European economy grew by 1.8%, I think, which was above forecast. The attack today is on Germany and not on the European Union itself. Clearly the attitude of the European Union is one of concern about its future. The plan is there and is set out in terms of the digital Single Market and the President's report to be introduced and implemented in coming years on the European agenda. Elections are to be held in the Netherlands and France, with possible elections in Italy and there will be elections in Germany later in the year. There have been changes as a result of recent elections in Estonia and Bulgaria.
In so far as our relationship with the European Union is concerned, we remain a central member of that. Our Ministers participate very strongly at all Council meetings in terms of the agenda being pursued by Europe. There are certainly challenges in terms of the new relationship being forged between the European Union and the United States and also between the European Union and the United Kingdom when it exits as a member of the Union. In that context the position changes on a constant basis.
For me the European Union, one of the best-developed regions on the planet, has a clear agenda. It is a case of having greater co-ordination, between the Commission, the Parliament and the Council in terms of implementing that agenda. There is potential to create millions of jobs over the next ten or 15 years. That is where Europe needs to be focused. There are geopolitical issues outside that which are causing concerns in north Africa, in particular.
Has the Cabinet Committee on European Affairs discussed the issue of the European Commission ruling on Apple's tax affairs in this country? Does the Taoiseach intend having further discussions about the Government's highly reprehensible decision to refuse the €13 billion that the European Commission believes is owed to the Exchequer in Apple taxes after the Commissioner Vestager's testimony to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach? It was an extraordinary irony that at yesterday's committee meeting, all those who were most critical of the European Union and its austerity policy, such as us, commended the Commissioner on at least the Commission doing this thing right and all the members from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who are the most enthusiastic for the European Union, essentially impugning her motives for coming up with these findings.
She was a very strong performer. What it boiled down to was her saying there was no way the European Commission could conclude that a company that had no employees, no activities and no offices could possibly have been allocated the profits of Apple rather than the company that was tax resident in this country and carried out real economic activity. That is an unanswerable point. Tax evasion was going on. This was a bogus company and the Government and Revenue facilitated this tax evasion by Apple.
No. This was not a matter of discussion at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on European Affairs. As the Deputy knows, this matter has had long and exhaustive discussion. A process is in train and it will be determined by the European judicial process. Ireland has appealed on the basis that there have never been sweetheart deals by Revenue with any companies. We are only entitled to take tax where economic activity occurs and with the 6,000-plus employees in Cork, that is what has happened.
That company was not taxed.
The Minister for Finance has made changes in recent budgets to get rid of the stateless concept and get rid of the double-Irish concept. We have been foremost with the OECD in terms of the BEPS proposition. We are the first to have a fully compliant OECD knowledge box at 6.25%.
Apple has also appealed the case. Lodging the money is a complicated process. It will be lodged in the escrow account-----
It has not been lodged yet, though.
-----and will wait there, pending the outcome of the court case at European level.
The Commissioner was at pains to say that the Commission did not want to interfere with corporate tax rates, which is a national competence here. I note that from her first finding she said that some of this estimated amount might well be due to other countries in Europe as well and it is matter for them-----
She did not actually say that.
-----to determine whether there was economic activity in their countries.
She did not.
The matter was not discussed at this committee.
It was in her press release.
She said they were free to make a claim.
Deputy, please.
It is a subject of a court process at European level and will go on for a number of years.