Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

One expects the multinationals to pay the required corporation tax rate but as for whether they should be targeted, the bottom line is they are a very important part of the economy, as evidenced last year. Our economy would have registered substantial declines but for the fact that a relatively small number of those firms enjoyed a particularly strong performance. Of course, some of that performance was due to the pandemic, given that they were producing products and services associated with the pandemic. There are always instances where people can benefit in a commercial sense, even from a crisis such as Covid-19. We have to be careful and ensure we do everything possible to support the recovery and that it is as broadly-based as possible.

On the question about new business ventures, it is difficult to say. Anecdotally, one issue that has struck me and others is the ingenuity that can be seen in the form of businesses that have adapted to Covid-19, where possible. We saw that even through the performance in the latter half of last year. There was the initial lockdown, followed by a strong recovery, and then there was another series of lockdown measures but they did not seem to have quite the same impact. While the measures of the second lockdown were not as significant, it seemed to suggest that many businesses were beginning to adjust their business models and to adapt in such a way that they could trade to a certain degree. It has shown there is remarkable ingenuity among mainly Irish businesses in adapting to the crisis and to the challenges posed. Hopefully, those businesses will be in a strong position when the economy fully reopens and will carry that forward.