Mr. Brian Keegan:

Perhaps the area about which I can make the most useful comment is Deputy Mathews's observation of how labyrinthine the system has become. I agree with him that it has become labyrinthine. It is worth making the point that tax legislation is essentially driven by three factors. It is driven by Government policies and as a response to and in anticipation of business developments. As global business becomes more complex, the system is becoming more complex. Equally, there is no doubt that the joining up of activity between the various revenue authorities is absolutely unprecedented. There is the Forum on Tax Administration comprising the revenue authorities of OECD member countries and a number of others. It is chaired by the Irish, which should be a matter of some pride to us. It is a genuine attempt to co-ordinate that kind of labyrinthine legislation and make it navigable.

In terms of who benefits from labyrinthine legislation, my suggestion is that nobody benefits. The vast majority of my profession are employed in business. They are the people who operate the PAYE and VAT systems and collect fiduciary taxes in respect of the Government tax take. These are ongoing problems. One concern I would have is that coming out of BEPS could make a very difficult international environment even more complicated because it is very difficult to make changes that will keep everybody happy while at the same time keeping such changes simple.