Mr. Pierre Moscovici:

The Deputy said that Ireland was a tax haven. I do not share that view. Huge progress has been made here in the implementation of global standards. We do not believe that Ireland engages in harmful tax competition. Our state aid decision indicates that Ireland did not always play fair in the past, nor did certain other member states. I must say, however, that Ireland has done impressive work in recent years to tackle tax avoidance and to support the agenda for fairer taxation. The phasing out of the "double Irish" arrangement is crucial, along with the legal change on stateless companies. I am also impressed that Ireland has been a leader on some of the base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, actions. For example, Ireland legislated for country by country reporting to tax authorities, even before we proposed it at European Union level. Ireland is also one of the few member states to have mandatory disclosure for advisers, which I will propose for the entire EU later this year, so it anticipated actions we intend to propose. As Commissioner, I have to answer questions from the Panama committee on the post-Panama papers, and this is something which is asked by them.

This constructive approach to corporate tax reform is very positive, both for Ireland's international reputation and its long-term economic sustainability. That is linked to what I said earlier on common consolidated corporate tax base, CCCTB. I believe Ireland has nothing to fear from that kind of proposal. Its sovereignty is respected enough and its attractiveness is global enough to benefit from that.