Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My party is very sceptical about this and I see it as a step towards tax harmonisation across the European Union. We all know what the agenda is. One of the levers we have left is sovereignty around tax but they just keep coming at us from all different angles. There is an issue with the taxation of the high-tech companies, however.

I wish to move on to the issue of non-performing loans, which both witnesses raised.

They are aware of the work we have been doing in the context of Permanent TSB's proposed portfolio sale, Project Glas, in particular because it involves family home mortgages and private dwelling houses, PDHs.

On the classification of split mortgages, an issue to which Mr. Hayes referred, we received a letter from Ms Danièle Nouy, the chairman of the supervisory board. We are trying to get to the bottom of why AIB split mortgages are regarded as performing and those of Permanent TSB are regarded as non-performing. We teased this out at meetings with representatives of both organisations. Ms Nouy probably cuts to the heart of the matter without mentioning any institution. She states in her letter it is "essential that the split-loan restructuring has resulted in two separate and independent payment obligations with substantially different terms and conditions" so an obliger or borrower should not be subject to any contractual repayment obligations in respect of repayment of the junior debt, which I take to be the warehouse debt, until the senior debt, the active mortgage, has been repaid in full, or if the borrower defaults on the senior debt. Does that cut to the heart of it as Mr. Hayes understands it?