Mr. Sorley McCaughey:

Deputy Crowe asked about contributory country reporting. It is very important for developing countries that this information is publically available. Developing countries suffer the most from multi-national tax dodging, but they have least ability and capacity to access the information, therefore the information about what companies are doing in each of the countries in which they operate needs to be publically accessible.

The issue of reputation is fundamental to the Brexit discussions and Ireland's understandable efforts to attract some of the financial services that are based in London to Ireland. With that comes the potential for great reputational damage. Some of the companies that we have been courting include HSBC, which has a reputation that belongs in the Al Capone era. Many of the companies that Ireland is courting are based in financial services, and many of the ways in which they organise their organisations lead directly to tax avoidance practices. There is not sufficient data around the practices of these companies to be able to ascertain definitively whether they are engaged in the kind of tax dodging that will impact on developing countries. We need greater transparency around things like trade in services, which are management fees and the like, which is often used as a vehicle for tax avoidance.

A similar point can be made about the use of special purpose enterprises, which are financial vehicles that are regularly used by companies to avoid tax. Brexit will increase the likelihood of companies coming to Ireland and using such vehicles to avoid tax, potentially in developing countries. That is why I was talking about the need for the establishment of a body that looks at issues like reputational damage, the maintenance of competitiveness and human rights. This new body could be housed under the National Economic and Social Council, NESC. At the very least, it needs to have the functions and characteristics of NESC.