Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many jobs and companies that exist now such as Google, Facebook and PayPal did not exist 20 years ago. There are two elements to this point. Forty per cent or thereabouts of our corporation tax comes from ten companies. All of them are US based, or that is the impression we get, and they are nearly all in the technology sector with possibly a few in the pharmaceutical sector. It is suggested, and the Revenue Commissioners have not confirmed this, that those companies are Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, PayPal, Google and some IT companies or pharma and medical device companies. Many of those jobs did not exist 20 years ago and many of them will not exist in 20 years time. For what jobs do we need to be preparing? Dr. Djankov might address, if he is able to, the fact that we are over-reliant, and I do not use that word lightly, or certainly significantly dependent on them for corporation tax revenues. For what should we be preparing in the longer term? We have seen brand new companies appear in space of 15 years and if that can happen, some companies that are here now may not be here in 15 years time. The loss of any one of those companies would be a big shock to our economy. How do we need to plan for that and for the new jobs of the future?