Mr. Michael Taft:

We must ask whether it is helping us to achieve our policy goals. We can dance around talking about foreign direct investment and whether having the bulk of it going into financial intermeditation is really having a positive impact on the domestic economy. Let us have that discussion. I would contend that it is difficult to argue that having retained earnings counted as an investment flow is somehow having a positive impact. We want companies to come here and invest in greenfield sites, as they did last year to the tune of €4 billion. That is a very positive thing, involving investment in plant and machinery that will put people back to work.

Other countries with small open economies are even more successful in that regard than Ireland, but they have much higher effective corporate tax rates.