Ms Joanne Richardson:

I will take the first part. To pick up on two points, and Mr. Cotter and Mr. O'Neill will back me up on this, there is wide recognition and appreciation among all of our members around the country of the importance of cross-party support for our 12.5% rate. This has come very much to the fore since the troika came in and, in the last year and a half, has almost become a national strategic issue for us all, publicly, politically and in business. There is wide recognition and appreciation of that.

The second point is also well put. Nearly every US company in Ireland is now run by an Irish person and many of them now have global mandates. We have many global vice presidents where the company or the facility here in Ireland has become a global centre of excellence. That is why, in recent years, we have seen so much reinvestment by companies here.

On the transatlantic trade agreement, we are aware this will probably come to the fore after the elections. We have already had discussions with Mr. Tom Donohue, the chief executive and president of the US Chamber of Commerce, who is a very great friend to Ireland and has been to Ireland many times. There have also been discussions among the AmChams in Europe, where there are 39 or 40 AmChams. There is an infrastructure in place through our AmChams in Europe and our connections with our US chamber colleagues. Locally, the support of the Irish presidency of American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland will be to get behind and be vocally and physically supportive of pushing that trade agreement forward.