Mr. Eamonn O'Dea:

I think fair treatment across the board is a very basic aspect of working in the Revenue organisation. The same approach applies to companies, regardless of whether they are big or small. Of course, larger taxpayers account for a high percentage of the tax yield. Perhaps I need to check my figures, but I think the top 100 taxpayers contribute over half of the total annual corporation tax yield. For that reason, there is a particular focus on the larger companies and the multinationals, which is in line with best international practice. Over 200 Revenue officers are involved in our large cases division. They pay close attention to tax payments and compliance by large multinationals, as is appropriate and merited given the percentage of the yield accounted for by the large payments of these large taxpayers.

One could say that rather than getting less attention they get a very focused attention. I take the Deputy's point about the defaulters list. It is the case, however, that in the case of multinationals, the issues that arise and which give rise to significant adjustments and settlements would more frequently tend to be technical issues based on interpretation of the law rather than perhaps outright evasion or whatever that might happen in other cases where simply receipts are suppressed or whatever and therefore end up in a publication situation.