Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are dealing with the 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, chapter 20, which deals with corporation tax receipts. We had a briefing session this morning from Dr. Brian Keegan of Chartered Accountants Ireland on corporation tax. We hope to bring our consideration of this matter to a close this afternoon following our meeting with Department of Finance and Revenue officials. We are joined today by Mr. Niall Cody, chairperson of the Revenue Commissioners, Ms Jeanette Doonan from the corporation tax branch, Dr. Keith Walsh and Mr. Liam Gallagher. From the Department of Finance, we are joined by Mr. John Hogan, assistant secretary of the tax division, Mr. Rónán Hession, Mr. Pat Leahy and Mr. John Palmer. I remind members and those in the Public Gallery to switch off their phones entirely. That means putting them onto airplane mode because they will interfere with the recording system if they are only on silent.

This is a continuation of our previous discussion on this matter. I gave the witnesses details on the Defamation Act 2009 when they were last here and this is merely a continuation of that, so I do not propose to say it again because I said it to them already as part of this process. I understand there is not an opening statement because it is a continuation of a previous meeting. That is completely logical. I thank the witnesses for the information provided. We had a useful exchange this morning for the benefit of the committee and for the public watching to get an understanding of this area. We all know that we never stray into the tax affairs of any individual company or such.

That goes without saying for all sides of the House. We will proceed with the first speaker, Deputy Marc MacSharry, who has 20 minutes. People will follow with ten minute slots thereafter.