Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To follow on from what Deputy Rock said, the increase in new products will hopefully have a spin-off effect in terms of an increase in manufacturing. If a new product works well and one has done one's due diligence, one starts manufacturing it and one goes from there. I agree with the Minister of State on this. Much of the language used in the amendments is vague. There is a proposal to include the cost to date to the Exchequer of revenues foregone. The opposite side of the argument is that many of these companies might not have invested if they had not received a tax break to mitigate the risk of investing to get these off the ground. That language is vague and there is an argument that they might not have come in had they not had the tax break. I understand Deputy Boyd Barrett is asking how much money is foregone if they are not charged 12.5%, but they might not come in at all if they do not have the KDB break. That is the issue with that. Another issue is the language on an impact on the delivery of an effective tax rate. Is that Deputy Boyd Barrett's interpretation of an effective tax rate? There is also an issue with the language relating to appropriate annual information. What constitutes such information? That has not been defined. The Minister of State has explained that the Comptroller and Auditor General can provide the information we have anyway, but the language around a great deal of this is vague.