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

To use a phrase, it strikes me that there are lies, damned lies and multinational accountancy practices and that there is enormous scope for abuse with regard to how the company quantifies the cost and value of these patents. It strikes me that this is one of the key mechanisms that allows such companies to write down their taxable profits and that this area must be examined a hell of a lot more. I have absolutely no doubt but that this explains why, according to European comparisons, Ireland's implicit rate is so much lower than everywhere else, because a lot of the companies engaged in this particular practice are based here.