Mr. Frank Flannery:

I invite my colleagues to comment if they wish to do so. With regard to research, much discussion about the scheme has taken place with finance houses such as PwC and KPMG, legal houses, the Institute of Taxation and others used to this world. We have made a proposal and it will have to be worked by those who put the final design on it on if it is to be implemented. It is done in a very simple way because simple schemes work best. People would get additional time in Ireland by paying money. The tax is additional to all existing taxes and would be a new superlevy which is not instead of anything. I do not know what it will look like when the drafters are finished.

I hope everybody will join in; I do not know whether the scale is too high but the potential is there. Most countries, including United States, Britain and Portugal, have implemented this measure in precisely this way. Several countries are trying to attract capital back to their countries and are doing so in different ways. Some are providing fiscal incentives to those bringing money to their countries, such as lower than usual tax rates. This is what Britain is doing to attract capital investment. Our residency requirements, as I understand it, are very restrictive and this proposal, if people sign up, would normalise it. Every country uses this type of measure in one way or another to try to regulate its affairs with the part of its capital structure conducting its business outside the country for business reasons.

I believe we will get a minimum of one in ten which would be very significant. I expect a hell of a sales campaign would be undertaken, taking people one by one and selling the idea to them.