Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I share that view and have shared it for a long period. Mr. Coffey has a point when he states there are certain things that should be reflected in the accounts, such as the Christmas bonus. The Christmas bonus was abolished by Fianna Fáil in the first cut and it was pretty shocking. There was much difficulty in trying to reinstate it. I think it is a positive payment in our system.

The second question I want to ask relates to the fact that there will be no tax cuts in terms of personal taxation for people at work. Does that not make a much stronger case for Ireland to have a minimum effective corporation tax because, as Mr. Coffey stressed, and I agree with his point, of the uncertainty of the corporation flows? It is ridiculous that we do not have a minimum effective rate of even 2% or 3%, which would give some stability. Mr. Coffey may argue, and I know others do, that this would result in a potential flight of businesses from Ireland but the EU and the US are saying, given the state of various economies, that they should have contributions from companies in different ways. The Department of Finance is adverse to this suggestion but would Mr. Coffey consider that there is now a serious case to do it as a way of stabilising some of the corporation tax receipts?