Mr. Gary Tobin:

The international tax rules have been in a state of flux over the past decade. Many international tax rules have stayed pretty much the same for the past 50 years. Many of them were developed by the OECD when someone who wanted to have a business in a country needed to have a bricks-and-mortar building in that country. With the advent of digitalisation and the Internet, there is no need to have a physical presence in a country in order to trade in that country. Many of the international tax rules that were designed by the OECD have been under discussion and debate at international level for many years. Deputies may have heard of the base erosion and profit shifting project, which is all about trying to get an international consensus on how international tax rules can be changed to reflect that fact that business has changed so dramatically. Ireland is very important in that context because there are so many Internet companies, etc., based here. Our colleagues in the Revenue Commissioners and some of our own tax colleagues in the Department have been influencing those discussions at OECD level. In general, we are reasonably happy with the way the OECD discussions have been going, although there are times when we do not agree with what is said.