Mr. Martin Shanahan:

I will respond on a couple of things. First, I had intended to say there are a number of ways. One way is to ask them. Second, one looks at what they do next and where they put their next investments. Moreover, one looks at where potential investors are putting their investments. As one of the more obvious items of evidence that this has not had a detrimental impact, I would point to the pipeline of investments since the budget was announced. I also note that even in advance of the budgetary announcement, there was a high degree of expectation among the international investment community that Ireland would do something in this area and still, we see very large investments coming through the pipeline.

I absolutely agree with the Deputy and equally and obviously, my only interest is in how we remain competitive. The statistics the Deputy used with regard to how tax has been an attractive and compelling reason for people to come to Ireland are absolutely correct. It also was right for the time. However, if our competitive advantage increasingly is being used against us and is causing other companies not to invest here, this may have been an issue. It is also more of a question of timing, in that a number of international processes are under way of which the committee would be aware, such as the base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, project through the OECD or initiatives through the European Union and the United States. One point that is clear from all those processes is the thrust of them is that substance and tax liability will be ever more closely aligned. Ireland has set out a clear roadmap and has stated what it is going to do over the years ahead. This has given investors a lot of confidence and clarity, which is not evident in all countries. It has removed one of the structures that may be causing us a difficulty from a reputational perspective. I am not just talking about causing Ireland reputational difficulty but about causing difficulty to potential investors. The Minister reiterated on the day of the budget that our 12.5% rate was not up for discussion and one should remember that the more that these two things, substance and tax liability, become aligned, the more attractive the 12.5% rate becomes.