Dr. Aidan Regan:

If I remember correctly, the ESRI carried out a study and this committee did work on it and produced some kind of data. The problem with those models is that they are based on certain assumptions. There are a lot of assumptions. If one assumes anything, one can effectively generate the outcome one wants. I would suggest that we do not really know but we do know, broadly speaking, that those countries which effectively facilitate companies to set up subsidiaries within other companies in order to attract and transfer the profits of the sales of their goods and services in other countries back to those subsidiaries are likely to lose out because under this common consolidated approach, the profit generated would go to the country where the sale took place. Therefore, Ireland would lose out on that basis. I am not sure how much it would lose in terms of revenue but the ESRI has produced an econometric study which says that it is not insignificant - it is quite significant. However, from the EU's perspective, that is secondary because it would be looking at it through quite a different lens, which would be that it is fair or just that the money goes to where it was generated.