Mr. Brian Keegan:

There are many points and I might mention some of them briefly. Deputy Liam Twomey mentioned his visits to the OECD and the consequences there. The fact is that because we have had a 12.5% rate for so long, we have been under fierce scrutiny by the OECD and European Union institutions. As such, we have had to be whiter than white. The 12.5% rate only applies as a consequence of EU scrutiny as the European Union stated, "You cannot have a 10% rate for manufacturing entities and a 40% rate for everything else." That is the genesis and we have been subject to a great deal of public scrutiny.

The Deputy made reference to the US Senate committee hearings, the report on which was published approximately one year ago. My understanding is that nothing has happened there.

On the observation that our reputation has taken a severe hammering, I note that it does not seem to have damaged our capacity to attract foreign direct investment. I see new announcements almost every day by IDA Ireland of new investments.