Ms Patricia Callan:

Yes. Even in terms of the concept of the living wage, there are 900 companies in financial services. If that was to roll out here, it would mean something like 90 companies in Ireland signing up. Therefore, it is not a big success rate and does not make sense. We really need to focus on getting our economy back on track and getting more people back into work. The more people who are in work and paying taxes, the better. In terms of taxation, it is all about distribution and getting more, so one does not have to increase rates. In fact, our experience shows that when we reduced capital gains tax rates, returns went up.

As regards how we fund all our expenditure, we believe that having lower taxes and more people contributing will, in the end, be a net benefit to everybody.