Mr. Seamus Coffey:

If it was within the same companies, we would not have these flows. It is between separate companies. The question is whether the price is being set appropriately. In Ireland we now have transfer pricing legislation, so they should be set appropriately. The reason they have increased is simply that these companies have got bigger and bigger and more online advertising is being sold. We can track them not only in the accounts of the Revenue Commissioners but in the national accounts as well, where we can see the money flowing in and the patent royalties flowing out. Whether the prices are appropriate is a question the committee should be addressing to the Revenue Commissioners, but in terms of what they are, they are standard features of corporation tax. It is simply that in the context of Ireland the figures are enormous.