Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The US Senate committee carried out its inquiry for American interests and the House of Commons report most certainly carried out its investigations for British interests. That may also be the case with this Irish committee, although given some of the remarks he might have heard here, Mr. Saint-Amans might not guess it is being carried out in Irish interests. To take one point, the American system of deferral, which has been the practice in place since the 1950s, or at least since Kennedy's time, means an American company can operate abroad and can defer unquantifiable sums of money indefinitely, and if it repatriates the money, it pays tax on it there and then. There is no compound or simple interest; the tax comes in at that moment in time and the tax is paid. When a deferred sum comes into play, it is just paid in a once-off fashion. Is that correct?