Mr. Seamus Coffey:

I wish to follow up on the point we were discussing previously. The depreciation Professor McHale mentioned will feed in to the capital allowance figure we have discussed. The committee may be interested in following up on something that might have changed significantly in 2015, even though we do not have the final figures yet, given the increase in depreciation in the national accounts of €30 billion. It is likely that the capital allowances in the corporation tax calculations will have jumped by a significant amount. I cannot give the committee the exact figure but it will be quite large. Again, it is related to the size of the assets.

I will offer one final point on the trade charges and capital allowances. They are deductions, not tax credits. Therefore, even though the amounts might be running to €20 billion, it is an expense.