Professor Jim Stewart:

It is a different regime. It should not be more favourable but it is different. That is tax law. It is in the Revenue Commissioner guidelines, a company pays tax where it is incorporated.

To follow up on one of Ms O’Brien’s responses, one of the problems is that we have a tax-driven industrial policy. If there is a problem with our tax system we go to the tax experts to try to solve it. Some people regard these experts as members of a tax avoidance industry. How can we ensure they will come up with solutions to the tax problem that are in everybody’s interest, not just that of their clients? The people that the Department of Finance calls in, the big four accountancy firms, earned €25 billion in revenue from tax advice in 2011. They are not disinterested persons. They have a particular vested interest in the tax regime and in complexity and advising clients.