Mr. Niall Cody:

In the actual case, they are not brass plate operations in Ireland. The two companies have significant Irish activities in Cork. We have taxed the companies and they have paid Irish tax in respect of the branch profits in Ireland. The use of Irish registered non-resident companies has been a feature of tax planning by multinationals. Irish law and changes in tax law usually involve a budget announcement where state aid approval must be given, so there is a process around changes to Irish law being subject to state aid. The Commission regularly reviews our legislation to see whether it is in accordance with state aid rules.

There is no doubt the motivation for the investigation was the Senate hearings in the US. The issue around the tax paid by multinationals which have an Irish registered non-resident area has been well known for a long time. The US equivalent of the CSO published data on the effective rate of US-controlled Irish registered non-resident companies and it features in the review of the effective tax rates the Department of Finance published in 2014.

Clearly, over recent years, with the base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, project, the use of these types of procedures is clearly not acceptable. The Minister in recent budgets has moved to close down the opportunity for stateless companies and then to rule out the opportunity for the double Irish process. Anybody who has-----