Mr. Eamonn O'Dea:

I am happy to do so. On the issue of the tax rate being in the low single digits, I absolutely do not want to talk about any specific company. It is very important to make a distinction between the tax applicable to a multinational company or group and the tax arrangements of specific sovereign states. It is one of the privileges and entitlements of our sovereignty that we can set out our own law and must then respect what our law provides as opposed to the interaction of our law with the law of other countries and the opportunities that may or may not afford to individual multinational companies or groups to arrange their affairs to their best advantage within the interaction of those sets of legislation.

When we speak about the Irish legislation, it is absolutely clear, as has been emphasised by all spokespersons on behalf of Revenue and on behalf of the Government, that we have a very clear situation. That is, there is one general rate in Ireland, the 12.5% rate, as well as a 25% rate for investment income and a 33% rate for capital gains. I am sure the Deputy is aware of all of this. My apologies if I seem to be stating the obvious. It bears repeating, however, that we have a 12.5% rate which applies across the board. Deputy Dara Murphy asked whether we have the same rules for both large and small companies. The only real distinction in our law which Revenue could apply is the distinction for very small start-up companies whereby they are entitled to an exemption if their profits in the first three years are less than €40,000 or marginally between €40,000 and €60,000.