For decades we have been known as a low-tax economy. Our 12.5% corporate tax rate has been the most identifiable thing about our industrial policy, the one constant that multinationals could rely on and a rate that was retained when the country went bust and had to be bailed out. However, the OECD will turn our 12.5% north star into a supernova.

We all know change is coming with the global minimum corporate tax rate. There is an inevitability about this. The evolving language of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance on the issue suggests they accept change is coming. What will that change look like? What will our unique selling point be then? Some countries attract foreign direct investment, FDI, not only through a skilled workforce, but through excellent public services and an affordable cost of living. Ireland will not attract companies on that basis. Our dysfunctional housing market means housing costs are the most expensive in the EU. According to a EUROSTAT survey, housing costs in Ireland are a whopping 78% above the EU average. Are wages 78% above the EU average? They are not. We have the third highest proportion of low-paid workers in the EU.

When it comes to healthcare costs, Ireland is the only country in western Europe that does not have free universal coverage for primary care, which makes the Government failure to implement Sláintecare all the more deplorable. Our roads are clogged with traffic and our public transport is at capacity and will soon be oversubscribed, with vital infrastructural projects such as MetroLink and DART+ seemingly delayed to 2034.

Our energy costs are the fourth highest in the EU, and that was before the current explosion in prices, which will put huge strain on families and households this winter. The energy crisis goes deeper than this. The Business Post reported an €80 billion investment by Intel is in jeopardy because of antiquated energy and water infrastructure, while the IDA has warned serious reputational damage could be done if these issues are not addressed urgently.

We have a highly educated workforce but when the corporate tax is changed and the global playing field is levelled, the cost-of-living crisis in this country will factor much higher in the calculations of companies considering setting up or investing here. Why would they go to a country where workers cannot afford a home and it is not guaranteed that the lights will stay on, when they can go elsewhere and not suffer a tax penalty for doing so?

What will our industrial policy look like when the 12.5% tax rate is gone? From this side of the House, it does not look like there is much of a plan or policy in place. Will the Government announce new measures in the national development plan, NDP, to address the serious infrastructural deficits in the context of that new industrial environment?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important question. I was not quite clear on her position on whether corporate tax should stay at 12.5% or increase.

There is an inevitability. It will not-----

I am questioning whether the Deputy agrees that the rate should stay at 12.5%. It would be interesting to get a clear statement.

It is Leaders' Questions.

It is Leaders' Questions.

I know that, but one can ask questions rhetorically in response as well, surely, and articulate a view.

It is Leaders' Questions. The Taoiseach could also answer.

I am just seeking clarity; that is all. The first point is that the corporation tax rate is not the unique selling point in attracting foreign direct investment into the country. One of the most important decisions made by modern Ireland was to join the EU. That has been critical to the continued economic transformation of our country. The party of which I am a member was the party that led that, with other parties that supported our entry into the Union. Others opposed it at the time. Some opposed it for approximately 30 years until they saw the light, but it was and is a very important policy in terms of our economic well-being and development and still represents that. Even earlier this week, when I was in New York talking to companies that are going to locate in Ireland, I made the point to them that if there are questions about our skills base and so on, our membership of the EU has been a huge buffer. We are the only English-speaking member state now, which is important.

Second, I point to the decision in the 1960s to bring in free second level education and to open outwards. The Lemass leadership of opening outwards was a key turning point in modern Ireland. Investment in third level education over successive generations is also a key selling point for Ireland. It is important because, repeatedly and consistently, companies that have located here, from the Intels to the Eli Lillys to companies all over the country, will say that the quality of the workforce here is second to none and very strong. That is a tribute to the education system right throughout. More latterly, our recent investment in research from the late 1990s onwards is paying dividends in the form of a higher quality of research and development investment that comes in, but we have to do more there into the future.

The tax system has been important; I do not understate that at all. That is why we have entered reservations in the OECD's position. We have not signed up to the OECD consensus, and the reason we have not done so is the lack of certainty in what has been proposed so far. The key issue for those who invest in Ireland is that they want certainty over the overall industrial policy framework, including tax. They do not want a situation in which the base rate will change every two to three years. There is also far more detail in this consensus on which companies will be covered and the threshold around turnover. Certain sectors such as financial services have been carved out. The negotiations are not complete at all, and we have made it clear that certainty and continuity, which have always been the hallmark-----

The Taoiseach's time is up.

-----of our taxation policy, must be maintained.

There is an inevitability about the OECD and a minimum rate, and I noted the Taoiseach's comments last week. I am very aware of Intel's investment in Ireland because I live in the town where Intel is located. That was in the late 1980s and early 1990s before the facility was up and running. There was not the housing crisis there is now.

It was far worse.

There were not some of the cost-of-living issues that there are now. It would be short-sighted not to look at a unique selling point that factors in some of the issues, for example, the deficit in energy. Data centres are an issue in that regard. We tend to have quite a short-sighted approach to crises. We are very good at crisis management when we get there, but planning to make sure we do not have those crises is where we are not good. I want to know what alternative industrial policy is being considered-----

Thank you, Deputy. Your time is up.

-----that would be a unique selling point other than the corporation tax rate.

The point I am making is that the tax rate on its own is no longer a unique selling point. It never was, actually.

It was very important, but the other two points I referenced, in terms of investment in education and our joining the European Union, were also key, fundamental pillars of the economic transformation of this country over 50 years, as well as our consistent industrial policy, which has been pro-enterprise. It is important to be pro-enterprise. Not everybody in this House has always been pro-enterprise but it is important, and it also important that people get that sense of the country when they arrive here.

The Deputy correctly referenced Intel, which is a very interesting example. We are now a centre of manufacturing excellence globally because of our experience over 30 or 40 years. We have benefited human capital-wise and in respect of processes in terms of how to manufacture. We are reliable partners in terms of being a country where manufacturing excellence is so evident. I was down at the Intel site recently and it is quite stunning, not least to see all the construction companies there.

Thank you, Taoiseach.

I understand there were 4,500 workers on site engaged in construction alone, including those of Banagher Precast Concrete, which is first in the world at what it is doing in respect of that plant and Intel sites all over the world.

The time is up.

We can knock ourselves a lot. We need to recognise the challenges but, sometimes, we also need to acknowledge and appreciate the good stuff that is happening in the country.