Dr. Jim Stewart:

It is very difficult to say. There are reports purporting to estimate the effects on Irish corporate tax receipts. It is very difficult to know exactly how it will work out. The Commission has done studies indicating there will be a small fall in corporate tax receipts in Ireland and an increase in other countries. I think because of the adjustments that I referred to earlier, CCTB, that is, a common corporate tax base, will enter by default. Increasingly, countries will have the information on which they themselves determine that profits of companies operating in their jurisdiction do not reflect value added and they will seek those profits to be repatriated or to be transferred from where the profits are currently declared. I think the solution is the introduction of a harmonised CCCTB. In the long run it would be good for Ireland, good for business in Ireland and good for multinational enterprises, MNEs, in Ireland. US companies are the main beneficiaries of a free market and that is the reason some US companies have initiated state aid claims cases. For example, Microsoft and other companies are the major beneficiaries of a free market and free trade in goods, services and labour.