Professor Frank Barry:

I introduced those ironies by way of trying to keep the discussion a bit lighter. As already stated, it is spectacularly complicated. I was using them in the way I would with a group of students in order to retain their interest while discussing a complicated issue.

In reply to the Deputy's question, one issue about which Ireland must be concerned is the need to consider short-term considerations versus long-term ones. In that context, the issue of stability must be important. We could, for example, increase our tax rate and, presumably, realise higher revenues for some short period. In the longer term, however, the multinationals might disappear. At the margins, some would certainly disappear and we might end up with less revenue.