Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also note IFAC's focus on the pension age and PRSI increases, but there does not seem to be much focus on the significant tax expenditure that occurs on private pensions. Originally, there were concerns raised, even by the troika, that such expenditure is benefiting high earners. I would be interested in the council commenting on why there is a lack of focus on this as well.

I want to go into something else before my time is up. I noted in IFAC's opening statement - this is something the council has probably raised on every occasion it has been in front of this committee or the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach - the concern about the concentration of our corporate tax base, largely within ten companies. It is something the council and others have been noting for some time. What progress has the Government made in mitigating that kind of concentration or relocation risk arsing from an industrial strategy that places all our eggs in one basket? Would it be prudent to begin weaning ourselves off this by ring-fencing large unexpected corporation tax receipts? I note the council mentions that it should be ring-fenced into the rainy day fund but I refer to an alternative industrial strategy because that is something that we need to focus on as well given the changes in international taxes.

At the same time, we see that the climate advisory council is telling us that we need to use fiscal opportunities such as low-interest loans for the front-loading of public investment to reduce emissions within the next ten years. What is the council's view on this? I note Mr. Barnes touched on that. We look at the risk because of climate change compared to the balance sheet risk and I would be interested in Mr. Barnes's view.