Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

No. We have always been of the view that, from a tax policy perspective, certainty is the most important element. Our 12.5% rate is very competitive and, coupled with things such an attractive research and development tax rate, it makes Ireland an attractive location. Our priority is talent and on a tax system that is more attractive for talent.

I will make an observation on the economic rationale for State support for business in the context of a hard Brexit. As I have said, we think the regions will be particularly impacted. If we look at the experience of Germany in 2008, 2009 and 2010, when a global crisis hit, Germany achieved flexibility on state aid rules from Brussels in recognition of the depth of the crisis, but crucially it made significant interventions to keep people in jobs. The German unemployment rate did not increase. It saved substantial resources on its social welfare. It kept people in their jobs and, when the business cycle turned, those companies were still viable, the employees were still present and the state was able to withdraw that support. When we look at that as a case study we can see that, yes, the state invested, but it invested money that was saved on social welfare and it retained its enterprise base. Our fear is that if Brexit kills our enterprise base, those companies and new entrepreneurs will not start again and will not make investments in the capital intensive sectors such as food, traditional manufacturing and engineering which require so much money to get up and running. We fear that those investment decisions will not be made in the future so we have to keep them alive through the travails of Brexit.

To comment briefly on the Deputy's points on female labour market participation, we see it as one of the great lost opportunities for our economy that so much wonderful talent is not active in the labour market. In the context of our housing pressures and the difficulties of attracting new workers into the labour market, it becomes a bigger constraint that we are not making better use of our existing resources. To mention some of the things we are doing from a business point of view, one of our trade associations in IBEC, Technology Ireland, has recently launched a targeted programme to help women returning to the workplace to start a career in technology or to make a career change into technology. That is proving quite successful. There is a lot of interest. We need to see more of those business-led measures.

We would point to two big obstacles in terms of policy. We still have exceptionally high child care costs in Ireland. Despite the measures introduced in recent years, which are just coming into force from this September, our child care costs are still prohibitive and act as a significant deterrent to female labour market participation. The other factor, which is very significant, again goes back to our marginal tax rate. The fact the marginal tax rate is so high is a particular disincentive for the second income earner who, in many cases, tends to be a woman who might be looking to return to the workplace. The combination and interplay of high child care costs and the very high marginal tax rate means that the effective tax rate for many second income earners, when those elements are combined, is 80% or 90%. That is what we have found.