Mr. Seamus Coffey:

Dr. Lawless elaborated on the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council's view. If I take off my fiscal council hat for a moment, I have done work on corporation tax. With regard to projections, one of the conclusions of the review of Ireland's corporation tax code was that the level of corporation tax pertaining at that time was sustainable until 2020. We are getting close to that date now but that conclusion from 2017 looks like it has been borne out and perhaps even exceeded. The Deputy is correct that, given the uncertain nature of this revenue source, the figure could go higher.

As Dr. Lawless has pointed out, such is the level of risk involved that basing public finances, social supports and public spending programmes on such an unreliable source of tax revenue would not be appropriate. Given the level of uncertainty, there is a possibility it could go higher. It has proved to have existed for a number of years and it was not purely a one-off. It could go higher. It is a pretty unreliable source of revenue, however.