Ms Cora O'Brien:

On the EU proposals, there is a risk of a shift of tax in terms of the cost of the short-term measure. The Senator would have heard some detail from Revenue and Department of Finance officials on the issue of having to deduct the tax from the corporate base here and some of the costs that would involve. That is the short-term solution and there is a cost attached to that. With the longer-term solution and the significant digital presence, the way that is being set out in the proposal in terms of the way profits are being allocated to this new significant digital presence is effectively an allocation method. We do not know the detail of what the allocation factors will be but it is possible they will be, for example, with respect to users in order that countries with larger populations will get a larger allocation. In that way, it is likely there would be a shift of the taxable base.