Cormac Lucey

Well, I agree with your analogy of Ireland doing the splits.

We are so economically dependent on American multinationals here.

You know, Alan rightly raised the income taxes and indeed value added taxes on top of the well spoken of corporation taxes.

And I would estimate that over 50 percent of the state's total tax take is coming directly or indirectly from U.S.

multinationals.

And I was struck by a poll.

Half?

More than half.

So it's at least half.

And I was struck by an opinion poll done by the Irish Times in the run-up to St.

Patrick's Day, where they asked those polled, should Micheál Martin visit Donald Trump in the Oval Office?

And it was something like 49% said yes, 42% said no.

And I was... You know, the ultimate political masters in a republic are the citizens.

And I think our political leadership is doing a poor job explaining to citizens just how economically dependent we are on the United States.

Now, having said all that...

I think Irish people identify very much with Palestinian people because of the 1600 plantations where Irish people were driven off their land in a similar fashion to the way in which Palestinians are being driven off their land today.

And we need, and there's clearly ethnic cleansing taking place.

And having lived and worked for seven years in Germany, I'm aghast at Germany's reaction.

Having been the perpetrators of the Holocaust, they seem to think that the lesson of World War II is we must always stand by Israel.

rather than we must always stand against future holocausts.