Mr. Gary Tobin:

The Vice Chairman raised some interesting questions. Undoubtedly, the current demand for action flows from the financial crisis and the fact that taxpayers feel they are having to live with austerity. Historically, it seems that whenever there is a global recession, international tax rules tend to be looked at. In the 1960s when the US was in similar trouble it introduced its subpart F rules, which introduced certain restrictions. That is the context. You are right, Vice Chairman. There are many large multinational companies that have been in this country for more than 30 years. They were here long before some of the international rules and US rules were in place. It is not my job to try to defend multinational companies. They can do that themselves but to be fair, in certain situations what one has seen are companies responding to changes in rules that happen in the US and elsewhere and they build structures around those rules. Some companies were in Ireland and elsewhere long before some of the rules were put in place. For example, the check-the-box rules to which reference was made, were only introduced in the US in the late 1990s. One could certainly argue that those companies did not come to this country to exploit those rules because they were here before the rules existed.

Deputy Doherty quoted from the testimony that was presented to the Senate hearing. On page 40, which I think is the last page of the report, it said that Congress can change these incentives by closing offshore tax loopholes and strengthening US tax law. In fairness to the Senate hearing, there is an acknowledgement that some of the issues are not necessarily Irish ones but are for others to consider.