Mr. Conor O'Brien:

I started advising on tax just shy of 25 years ago. We meet businesses in foreign countries and we try to sell Ireland to them, not simply because we are patriots but because it is in our selfish interest, as they will become our clients when they come to this country. KPMG Ireland is effectively in competition with other countries and we see the offerings. Until relatively recently, if I went to a foreign business, many of them would say to me, "I want to go to the UK because it has a bigger labour pool, London is a big financial centre and it is easier to get my employees to go and live in London". My reply to them is, "That is fine, but you get a better tax answer if you come to Ireland." That is what gave us a competitive edge. Ireland is a more peripheral economy than the UK. However, the UK has all the advantages it has over Ireland and now it also has a 10% patent box tax rate, a 5% rate of tax for finance companies, a 10% rate of capital gains tax for entrepreneurs compared to a rate of 33% in Ireland, lower rates of income tax and all the other advantages. This has made a huge difference to the UK. If one searches on Google or reads the newspapers there is much public commentary from businesses that have specifically moved to the UK as a result of the policy. I am not surprised to see the UK economy starting to do quite well, and in my view this policy has been one of the big factors. In the past three to four years it has become very competitive and that has been its stated ambition. The UK authorities are out on the road selling the UK globally to attract investment and they have been quite successful.