Mr. John McCarthy:

The growth rate is relevant because within the growth rate we forecast the wage bill and the profit bill. Profitability in national accounting terms is so-called gross operating surplus. With the change in the growth rate we changed our forecasts for the gross operating surplus, for profitability, which at the time of budget 2015 was a forecast of just north of 5% whereas we now think it will probably be approximately 15%, 16% or maybe 17%. That does not explain the problem because profitability and corporation tax revenue typically move one for one over time. The fact that corporation tax is now between 50% or 52% above for the year as a whole means there is a massive gap between those two variables. We are looking at the econometric models and so is Revenue. It is important to bear in mind that because of the concentration in Ireland, not just of GDP or of gross value added and so forth but of the tax system, firm-specific developments can have a major impact that cannot be captured in any econometric model. Nobody can.