Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials. In regard to the tax information exchange agreements, we have signed up to 20 and 16 are currently in force. Are they effective? Presumably, many of them are with countries with which we would not have a significant trading relationship and countries which may be regarded as tax havens. When our Revenue Commissioners request information from countries with which we have such an exchange agreement in place, is there co-operation? Is such information forthcoming?

In regard to Montserrat, I note from the briefing notes provided by the committee clerk that our trade with it is very small - €53,000 worth of trade in 2011. I assume there are no administrative costs associated with having these agreements in place and that there are no countries which are too small, or deemed not significant enough, to have such agreements with.

The Minister of State might confirm if this is the first agreement of its type which we are signing up to with the United States.