I regret to hear breaking news from Europe that the digital tax proposal seems to have fallen through at the Council meeting today, which the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is attending. I regret it because I think the revenue we could raise from the proposal could be used to fund Irish media. Google and Facebook are taking all the advertising revenue. The Irish media are in crisis. I also regret the risk to our reputation in being seen as a country that harbours such low-tax companies.

Will the Taoiseach outline the Government's position from here, given that the proposal seems to have fallen foul of the Council? Are we opposed in principle to the idea of a digital tax? The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, says this should be done through the OECD. How does the Government intend doing so now? How do we restore our reputation and introduce such a tax, if that is ultimately the Government's position?

My view is that large, wealthy tech companies should pay their fair share of tax and pay that tax where it is owed. We have a profound difficulty with the EU's current proposal for a digital tax because, rather than taxing profits, it taxes turnover or revenue. At present, companies, many of them big tech companies, record profits in Ireland and we gain from this in the form of a 12.5% corporation profit tax, which is now bringing in billions of euro in revenue to allow us to fund our public services, improve our public infrastructure and tackle issues such as climate change.

If we move to the model the European Commission is proposing, the levy would be on the turnover. The money would then go to the big countries, such as France and Germany, where many people are using those services. Less profit will be recorded in Ireland and we will get less revenue. Rather than funding the media, as the Deputy suggested, there will be less revenue for Ireland and that would mean having to cut back public spending.