Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. The other matter I want to discuss with Mr. Cody are his predictions in regard to the corporation tax receipts for this year and last year. The letter he sent us dated 24 October is specifically on this issue. I know he said it is up to the Department of Finance but he has a big input into the information the Department of Finance has. We asked for a note because when it emerged during the summer that corporation tax receipts were surging ahead, it was said that this was due to a change in the accounting rules. I took the view that those types of rules were predictable and did not happen overnight. Mr. Cody said in his correspondence that there was a significant change for the telecommunications and software sectors, where long-term contracts are complex and arrangements are prevalent as to when they record their income. He took the view that there is a transition period to record this but a number of these companies put it all into year one. The Revenue Commissioners could not predict that which led to the €350 million of extra receipts.