FACT-FINDING TRIP:MEMBERS OF the Dáil finance committee intend to raise the controversial leak of the Irish budget to the Bundestag when they visit Germany for a fact-finding mission tomorrow.
The cross-party group will stay in a two-star hotel when they travel to Berlin at taxpayers’ expense. The delegation will be led by committee chairman Alex White of Labour, who will be accompanied by Fine Gael’s Liam Twomey.
Also travelling will be Michael McGrath of Fianna Fáil, Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin and Richard Boyd-Barrett of People Before Profit. Other committee members, including Fine Gael’s Peter Matthews, will also travel, although they will have to pay their own way.
Mr Twomey confirmed the scrutiny in the Bundestag last year of tax increases before the information was released in Ireland would be raised.
Also tomorrow, the delegation will visit the Irish Embassy in Berlin and then meet Irish business community representatives based in the city. On Thursday, the TDs will meet the German-Irish Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Bundestag. This will be followed by a working lunch with Petra Merkel, chairwoman of the Bundestag’s budgetary committee, and other committee members.
