Mr. Rónán Hession:

The figures are published and they are as the Chairman has said. The corporation tax code was reviewed by Seamus Coffey last year; he provided his report in September and it was published. The Minister then launched a consultation process on implementing that report, and the deadline has just passed, as the Chairman has pointed out. That report did not make any recommendation in terms of change in the treatment of losses. It does not surprise us that it was not a feature of the submissions that have since come in.

The issue of losses arises, of course. It is an enormous amount. In the analysis of the 2015 corporation tax receipts was published by Revenue, which has since been updated to show the picture for 2016, we see that there are some 8,000 companies which have worked through losses and are starting to pay corporation tax. It is one of the factors driving the sustained increase in corporation tax receipts. To some extent the hangover from the financial and economic crisis is starting to work its way out of the system. We have not looked at a sunset clause in terms of the use of losses. As Mr. Hogan said, it is not a feature of international systems, but of course it is a valid debating point for legislators in terms of our tax code.