Mr. Conor O'Brien:

Certainty is a big selling point for Ireland. The fact that the regime has been so stable for so long and that we can point to the fact that the low rate of corporation tax is supported by all the main parties in the Dáil and that it survived so many changes of Government over so many decades, can be pointed to and contrasted with other countries. I am aware, for example, of proposed changes in rules in other jurisdictions and of companies moving businesses because of a proposal which might not have happened, but the companies decide to move anyway because of the uncertainty about the country on the basis that the regime cannot be trusted. If a company is investing hundreds of millions of euro, in many cases it is for the long term, in factories and plants. That means that if one changes the regime, for example, by increasing the corporate tax rate, the effect on operations which are already here would be less because if one has built one’s factory and employed people it will not be as easy to leave. One has made a massive investment and it will take a lot to cause one to move that.

When one talks to subsidiaries of multinationals in Ireland they say, for example, that the changes in the UK will not affect existing operations but it means new projects will not go there. The most immediate impact would be on new projects that might have come that otherwise do not come. People closing down and moving out is a more radical decision.