Mr. Derek Moran:

The CCCTB has been around for a very long time. This may well be its third or fourth iteration. When I look back, the first reference I can find to the European Commission harmonising corporate taxation is 1972, in our White Paper on accession to the EU. This is not a new issue. The most recent proposal separates the base from consolidation. Consolidation is the part where this breaks down, because what we are discussing is redistributing on a forwarding basis from one country to another. VAT is for when something is sold in a country, I would say. The fact that profit is generated is not relevant as the VAT part of it is already picked up. The Oireachtas, along with six or seven Parliaments in Europe, has rejected the CCCTB, not enough to give it a yellow card and go back to the drawing board but it shows a level of concern and unhappiness.