Dr. Jim Stewart:

Their analysis was a forecast and forecasting is a tricky task to undertake. One of the factors that goes into the allocation of profit is, of course, the size of assets in a country. I note that with the wind-down of the double Irish many companies have been transferring intellectual property to Ireland and it is not obvious to me that we would lose a significant amount of tax revenue.

In any case, we will lose tax revenue because of these collaborative adjustments that I referred to earlier. The way ahead to a rational tax system is in terms of CCCTB. It is a tax change that will cement the benefits of the free market. It is ultimately to the benefit of all companies operating in Ireland that one can sell goods freely throughout the EU.

By the way, it would be a complete disaster if Ireland even thought about leaving the EU, never mind that one might have discussed it. This is not the matter to be discussing at present in light of Brexit, Trump, etc.