Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are 69 double taxation treaties in place and 22 TIEAs, which are separate. The Deputy is right in saying there is a gradation among the three types of agreement, the lowest being the TIEAs. The latter deal with specific information that is sought from time to time whereas double taxation agreements are more comprehensive. It is important to note, in light of recent commentary both internationally and at home, that we are beginning to move to a new process of automatic exchange of information, similar to what the United States has been putting in place by way of its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, FATCA, which I spoke to the finance committee about some months ago. I had the opportunity to meet the Secretary General of the OECD, Mr. Angel Gurría, in Vilnius last week when he gave a presentation to the ECOFIN meeting. The direction in which the G20 and OECD are moving on this issue is clear.

The main benefit of automatic exchange agreements is that rather than merely an arrangement where either tax authority will respond to a specific query that the other might have, there is instead a direct and automatic exchange of all relevant information between individuals and companies, such as, for example, between the United States Internal Revenue Service and our Revenue Commissioners and vice versa. However, I accept the Deputy's point that TIEAs are the lowest rung of the ladder when it comes to the exchange of taxation information.