Mr. Neil Willoughby:

I will add a general point of context, as we indicated in our statement, virtually all companies in Ireland will, regardless of whether they are directly in scope, be indirectly impacted by both pieces of legislation. That needs to be made abundantly clear. Just because they are not directly in scope does not mean that they will not have to work with it and will not need people focus on the legislation. Specifically on what Ireland can do, the first thing is making sure the stop-the-clock aspect is transposed as soon as possible in order to provide legal certainty here. We understand from the Department that this should be at the end of June. That should be expedited and done as soon as possible with regard for compliance, which, potentially, will arise from next year for some companies.

There are some particular issues from an Irish standpoint. I already mentioned some about EU subsidiaries of non-EU companies. That relates to international companies but also to companies from Northern Ireland and Ireland with the complex operations that are there. This can be a unique issue from an Irish perspective that should be addressed. Focusing on those issues as a small member state, where we can have an impact, is critically important.