Professor Jim Stewart:

Let us take the case of a company with several thousand employees in Ireland that produces output in Ireland and pays VAT. We would find it very odd if the CSO said that it will not count those employees and include them in its survey because the IDA has said they are not VAT or PRSI statistics. We seem to be saying, just in relation to corporation tax, that the company is not here. For every other purposes, such as employees' VAT and PRSI, it is here and its output is here but just in relation to corporation tax we will regard it as not being here. That seems to me to be unreasonable. I would say that it is reasonable to consider that the profits should be allocated to this subsidiary, which is incorporated in Ireland, where all of this other activity is going on in Ireland and where there is considerable management control.