Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was not that we were facilitating this. However, certain companies found a loophole in the borderland between the tax codes of different countries. They were able to put in place arrangements whereby if profits were passed through a company in Ireland, there was no tax liability anywhere in respect of them. It will depend on what the companies involved decide to do. They may be obliged to pay additional tax elsewhere but not in Ireland. They may also plan around it and find another loophole somewhere else. We cannot control this. What we are doing is being done principally for reputational reasons. I would like to see the international community supporting change and implementing agreed change under the guidance of the OECD.