Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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One interesting aspect of it relates to the fact that Senator Levin, the chairman of the US Congress sub-committee, made it clear that "check-the-box" tax regulations introduced in the United States in 1997 and the "look-through" rule first enacted by Congress in 2006 seemed to have facilitated significant offshore profit shifting in that jurisdiction. I have been involved with this committee since 2002 and even then issues were being raised in the US with regard to multinational companies moving their operations to Ireland and other countries in Europe.

The double-Irish issue was relatively new to most of us when we first heard about it this year.I am concerned about the approach that has been taken by Westminster and the Houses of Congress to Ireland. It is not that we are insecure but what is the status of the Caribbean in that regard? From reading about economics in recent years one would have thought that most of the discussion would have been based on a number of so-called tax havens in the Caribbean, yet in recent years there has been talk about this country and The Netherlands. I presume they are also subject to the EU inquiry as well. What does Mr. Tobin consider to be the basis for the current position? There could be hundreds of billions at this stage in offshore accounts and perhaps politicians in America saw it as an opportunity for US multinationals to have access to cheap money in order to expand internationally but the tipping point might have been reached and the discussions are as much about politics as tax avoidance.