Dr. Pat Ivory:

Yes. I wish to respond. I thank the members for the very gracious comments they made about IBEC's work and our document. We focus not only on the policy coherence and the evidence-based recommendations we make, but also on communicating those in the most effective manner to have the greatest impact on behalf of Irish business, particularly at a European level.

There has been a very good response to our communication documents and the evidence we put forward in the policy recommendations. I thank the Deputy for his very gracious comments.

We continue to have grave concerns about the CCCTB proposal and the action taken by the Commission in this area. The proposal has been talked about for many years at European level. We expressed our concerns vocally in our meetings with the European Commission last week and other fora and continue to work on the issue with our strategic business partners at a European level. I agree with Deputy Bernard J. Durkan that our concerns are shared by other smaller member states which also believe these initiatives are to the disadvantage of member states with small domestic economies and to the advantage of member states with much larger populations and domestic markets. We continue to voice our concerns in Brussels about the development of these proposals and our objections to their adoption in their current format.

One of the key aspects of our report which I have mentioned is that taxation matters should be determined at member state level in the context of member state sovereignty. In that regard, we are also very concerned not only about the proposal on digital taxation but also its timing. As Senator Terry Leyden mentioned, relations between the European Union and the United States are very delicate. In that context, we have grave concerns about the proposal on digital taxation which was issued last week by the European Commission. In conjunction with our business partners in Europe, we have made very clear our view that issues such as digital taxation should be dealt with at a multilateral level through the OECD which has been proved, through the BEPS process, to deliver results. That is where we believe these conversations and actions should take place. We are very concerned that the European Union might consider taking unilateral action before that conversation has been completed at the OECD. We believe it is worth giving proper consideration to these issues. We recognise that the world is changing, that digitalisation is a feature of all economies and that these issues must be considered. We need to come to a better understanding of them and IBEC is working with its partners in the business and industry advisory committee at the OECD to try to do that. We are working to arrive at a better understanding of digitalisation, how technology, global supply chains and digital trade work. We will be travelling to Paris in April for some detailed meetings with the OECD in that regard.

Senator Terry Leyden made reference to the potential for a trade war between the European Union and the United States, something about which we are very concerned. IBEC has made submissions on it, as have our sector associations which are very concerned about any list of retaliatory products being drawn up by the European Commission. Senator Terry Leyden specifically mentioned bourbon, but exports of Irish and European whiskey to the United States exceed, by a factor of five, European imports of bourbon from the United States. We believe it would be a very high risk strategy to get involved in a tit for tat trade war. We have spoken directly to the Commission about this. I have also spoken to the officials who are putting the list together. IBEC and its sector groups have made formal submissions to the Commission and have raised the issue at our meetings with it. The week before last our CEO, Mr. Danny McCoy, and the executive director team of IBEC travelled to the United States for a series of meetings with strategic business partners, including the US Chamber of Commerce. We also had a meeting with the Taoiseach when he was in Washington. IBEC had meetings with the US Department of Commerce and the Unites States trade representative, USTR, to emphasise our particular concerns about the direction of US trade policy and to reaffirm our long-term commitment to having a strong relationship between Ireland and the USA, as well as a strong relationship between the European Union and the USA. We have been encouraging our strategic business partners in the United States and the officials of the Administration whom we meet to try to ensure the United States will continue to take a leadership role in seeking to have open trade and investment across the world. This is an area in which we will continue to work. When our CEO met Mr. Wilbur Ross in the Department of Commerce, he made these very points to him and his officials. We are pleased that a decision has been made to temporarily exempt the European Union from the measures President Trump and the White House have introduced or are about to introduce. However, we believe the temporary nature of the exemption means that there is still significant work to be done. We will be working closely with our colleagues at European level, as well as the European Commission, on this issue. We will also be working with our contacts in the US Administration in Washington and New York.