Mr. Matt Carthy:

The first part of the Deputy's question goes to the heart of the matter. It is true that it could be some time before we see movement on this file and it could be never. However, something has to happen as citizens across Europe are demanding that companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple pay some level of tax. It is morally indefensible to have the current situation whereby they can exploit different tax bases. We cannot say that we will figure out a way of taxing these companies in the same way as we tax traditional, bricks-and-mortar companies because the nature of these business is fundamentally different. As a result, their tax will also have to be different.

The second part of the Deputy's question is also important because it deals with building public support for this move. There are people in the European Commission who want this to be an own resource of the Commission, meaning all the money is soaked up and distributed as the EU institutions see fit. I have huge concerns about that in terms of accountability and transparency. Money is power and those within the EU who want the EU to have more power are adamant about getting additional resources.

The distribution would be different from under the CCCTB in that, under it, there is a threat to money coming into the Irish Exchequer, which could leave a hole in our finances. There is no digital taxation at the moment so we should perhaps come up with proposals to input into the discussion and this committee, or the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, could have a role in that. We could propose a mechanism whereby these companies could be taxed and for how the money could be distributed.