Mr. Gerry Howard:

There are two choices when a business is using intellectual property. Much of the research and development work is not done in Ireland. Much of it is done in other countries such as America and France. If a company wants to use it in its manufacturing process, it pays a royalty to the person who has developed the intellectual property. There will be real costs in terms of researching and developing a new product and in creating the intellectual property. Those real costs have to be paid for and they are a cost to the business. They are no different from any other cost of a business. The business can either pay the royalty or purchase the rights to that intellectual property outright and then claim a capital allowance against it.