Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I welcome Mr. Moran and his officials. Mr. Moran must be in an invidious position in that he must be the first Secretary General of the Department of Finance in a generation to be reprimanded for bringing in €2 billion more than the Department anticipated. That is a tough one for the Secretary General today and my sympathy is with him. Obviously, it is a bad day all round for some people that the tax receipts are far in excess of what was anticipated, which obviously is a good thing.

I refer to the demonisation by some people of the multinational companies that employ in excess of 135,000 people.

I worked for one for a good number of years. There is a political demonisation of that sector, and we have heard an instalment of it over the past half hour.

In the Department's experience in dealing with IDA Ireland, with the Revenue Commissioners and with people who are trying to attract people here and keep them, how beneficial is it to Ireland to have constant withering attacks on our corporation tax rate?