Mr. Ronan Hession:

That is heavy stuff for a technocrat like myself. I guess they would say, "Do you want to pool your sovereignty with the other countries?" This is not going to happen unless Ireland signs up to it, and changing the directive later would require Ireland's agreement on unanimity. Not to put words in the Commission's mouth, they would probably say that this is a proposition. They certainly have the right of initiative. It would be true that in future Finance Bills - and I had the pleasure of being here with the Minister for the recent Finance Bill - that a lot of the tax issues around these larger companies would not be discussed in this room on Committee State. They would be dealt with at European level, so in that sense the role of the Dáil and Seanad - where we have Committee Stage tomorrow - would be much reduced for those companies above the threshold or the smaller ones that opt in - they would no longer be dealt with under the domestic rules. The point made to Ireland would be, "That only happens if you decide to pool your sovereignty with the other countries, and decide that you are going to agree unanimously for that to happen." The Deputy began his contribution by referring back to the nub of the discussion here which is around reasoned opinion. On the proportionality point, does it go as far as the treaty requires and no further, or is it a step beyond that? That is the question that needs to be answered on proportionality. Unquestionably, however, the net result of this is that we are agreed that a significant amount of tax policy will be decided at European level, albeit with Ireland at the table exercising its vote in the context of unanimity.