Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, business people will say that they need certainty, and I understand that. However, as a country, we need certainty as well. This is probably more a question for the Department of Finance.

On the previous occasion on which Mr. McCarthy was before the committee, I asked how his Department communicated the surge in corporate tax in 2015 and he stated that there was a difficulty in communicating it because it had not been not expected. How can there be certainty in the Department of Finance? That surge could go as quickly as it came. At this point, is there a means of estimating what the yield would be if every company that is liable for a corporation tax rate of 12.5% was to pay the 12.5%, which is a generous amount?