Mr. Paschal Saint-Amans:

On the question of whether any of the 15 actions are more relevant to Ireland, the answer is "No". It is a comprehensive action plan, because the 15 actions address all of the issues. If a country were to address one part without addressing the others, it would just shift the problem away. All of the 15 actions are relevant to Ireland.

I do not have a figure for the average effective tax rate for multinational companies operating in Ireland. Our report, which was published in February, identified some effective tax rates for multinationals throughout the EU, but it was not done country by country because we do not have such data. I wish to draw the committee's attention to the fact that we are trying to develop models to survey the effective tax rates of companies, particularly in the area of intangibles.

I will respond to the question of whether the actions are more suited to larger countries than smaller ones. No; they should suit all of them. It is one-size-fits-all, and that is always a challenge. One-size-fits-all never looks that good, but that is what we intended. It should give countries the instruments to neutralise the use of no-tax jurisdictions where companies artificially locate profit.

When will we see the effects on the ground? We have an action plan that provides actions to be completed at our level, which is defining recommendations or providing instruments for government to implement in the next 18 to 24 months. We expect that this sense of direction will inspire countries and, more importantly, the business community to change some of their legislation or tax practices.

Is there something unique in Ireland? I am not sure of that. Ireland has been very good at attracting companies with its very low corporate income tax of 12.5%. That is very low when compared with other countries. It has also been used through what is called the double Irish arrangement, and some others, because of the articulation with US legislation.