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

On banks and bank debt, not that long ago we saw a newspaper headline that one of the banks which had the benefit of surviving as a consequence of citizens bailing it out was not expected to pay any tax for the next 20 years. This was because it is able to write off its losses, which are our losses, against its own balance sheet. If I find at home a medical receipt from five years ago, as an individual taxpayer I would not be able to seek to write that off against my tax liability. I can well understand that companies will write off debt over time, but then there is the idea that this can be indeterminate, particularly for a sector which had the benefit of the public bailing it out. What modelling or consideration has been given to limiting sectors such as that one? Can that kind of sector be divided up in terms of the avoidance of paying tax?

They may well end up being sold and it would be a different entity that would own them. Does that come into play?