Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will be absolutely honest.

When I hear that the organisations which have given the Department their opinions on this issue include the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, National Treasury Management Agency, Central Bank, IFSC and the funds industry, it strikes me that I could have told Ms McVeigh exactly what they would say. I would like to hear the views of other types of organisations, so we have a chance of a balanced debate.

On the question of how much a financial transaction tax might raise, Ms McVeigh indicated there would be costs and so on. The Central Bank's quarterly bulletin for this year shows there has been a massive increase in investment funds, up to a net worth of €1.1 trillion. Does this not suggest that the potential take from an FTT might well be considerably larger than the ESRI estimate of somewhere between €400 million and €700 million? Ms McVeigh has put forward a sort of qualification even on the ESRI estimate, pointing out that we would have to give some €300 million of those moneys back to the EU budget. Is it not the case, however, that the €300 million would be subtracted from our total contributions to the EU budget and there would, in effect, be a net benefit to the State?