Corporation tax and foreign investment
After prompting from the Chair, Senator Horkan called for a debate on false narratives about Ireland's economy, arguing that major multinational investment and corporation tax receipts reflect real employment and value.
I will call for a debate on it. It is important that we do not allow the narrative to get out there and gain traction. It is not true. There are thousands of people working. In recent months, I was at the opening of the new €119 million Microsoft building in Ireland. The company has more than 2,000 staff of many nationalities. It has 71 nationalities working there. Apple has huge numbers of people working here. So have Google, Facebook and many other companies. Nine of the top ten ICT companies in the world are in Ireland. The reason we have corporation tax from those companies is because they are generating value in Ireland. We benefit from that but so does the world. They pay their tax in accordance with the legislation. I would like the Leader to bring in the Minister to talk about it. It is important that we address the issue and not let the world narrative get out there.
Comment on this
I will raise two issues, if I may, and call for two debates. First, I had a meeting on Monday in the Department of Health with grieving parents of a young Irish boy, Gavin Coyne, who passed away in Newcastle last year with a heart complaint. The care that we provide for children with heart issues needs to be examined and the way that we care for parents who have to deal with this situation and who have to seek treatment abroad needs to be further investigated because the treatment that this family and their son got left much to be desired. We made progress at the meeting with high-ranking officials but a political discussion needs to take place in this Chamber as to how we invest in that area, how we can support children with heart complaints and how we can support families because there is still a discussion to be had in that way. A young Irish child died, not in Ireland but abroad, and we need to have a conversation about that. I hope the Leader can facilitate a conversation with the Minister for Health on how we send children abroad for certain operational procedures.
The second issue I want to raise is the issue of mental health. I note the comments of the Ombudsman for Children who is quite critical of the State's response to children's mental health issues. We had some quite disgusting comments over the course of the most recent referendum where Members of this House stated that mental health was not real health. In my constituency, in the past month we have had two instances at two DART stations where young people have lost their lives. I witnessed a vigil in Harmonstown DART station attended by young people who were traumatised by their friend, the person whom they loved and knew, taking his own life at Harmonstown DART station. Flowers and candles were left. This is an epidemic that we in this House all know far too well. As public representatives, we must have a response to this. I ask the Leader to facilitate a conversation with the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for mental health because where I live, the area that I care passionately about, at local DART stations people are literally ending their lives. This cannot be a situation that is normalised. What is most worrying about it is that it has not seemed to have got any traction or much comment. I call for that debate in this House as a matter of urgency.
Comment on this
I would like to be associated with the expressions of sympathy to the Kiely family on the death of Rory. Rory was someone whom I got to know in recent years, through horse racing more than our political involvement. He was a proud member of the Oireachtas syndicate, the horse of which won the midlands grand national at my track of Kilbeggan last year. It was on that evening that we struck up a relationship. I was only speaking to him on Thursday last in Mayo when he said he was coming up here this week, and I was shocked this morning to hear of his death. I offer my deepest sympathy to his extended family.
I want to raise the issue of the changes to the farm-to-farm cattle movement certificates. The Leader can put it on his list for the next time we have statements on agriculture. Currently, when a farmer registers calves he knows will be sold within a fortnight, he can apply for a certificate of compliance to move and can then sell to the open market.
He could maybe have two or three different suppliers and then not know which calf will end up with what customer. Now the Department has changed the regulations so that when he applies for that certificate of compliance he has to put the herd number of the herd of destination on the application for the certificate of compliance. It is impossible for him to know in certain situations in whose herd the animal will end up. We hear all the time about CAP reform and simplification. Every change we make and propose is supposed to be simplifying the burden of paperwork, red tape and bureaucracy for farmers, yet at the same time every change we make seems to make it more complicated, involves more paperwork, makes it more strenuous on farmers and complicates their day to day living and activities. I would like the Leader to put that on the list for discussion the next time the Minister is in for statements, to ask why there is the necessity for that change. I know we need compliance and traceability for animal health and welfare issues but this makes no sense. It seems like a change because somebody somewhere has seen some small issue and changed the whole system, which will affect everybody across the board and will complicate the issue, slow it down and tie farmers' hands that little bit tighter behind their backs.