Professor Philip Lane:

Let me come back to this issue. The tax situation faced by these funds is for the Oireachtas to decide and that can evolve over time. Clearly, in the more favourable regime they used to operate under, the price they were willing to pay for these loans was influenced by that tax regime. Every year it is at the discretion of the Oireachtas to change that tax system. That is part of what is possible from the Oireachtas. The taxation of any type of investor is entirely up to the Oireachtas. There will be an interaction with the value they are willing to pay for a loan but the impact of that tax is a normal calculation one always makes when one taxes anyone.