Mr. Ronan Hession:

I should add something. The Deputy said that the proposal has many similarities to a previous proposal. The question for us is whether we have confidence in the multilateral nature of the agreement at that level. That was not by way of agreeing a single legal instrument. It involves a mix whereby countries need to implement some of it through legislation or country-by-country reporting, for example. Others do so by best practice which in Europe we have taken to another step through legislation on the control of foreign company rules. Others are just guidelines, which in our case we will import into our domestic law. However, not every country will do that.

Our experience of that process, both in the negotiations that went on behind it and what has happened since, is that it has gained real traction. Every time I attend OECD meetings there are more countries involved. Those countries have heard warnings from the OECD which, put simply, mean, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu." They would realise, therefore, that there are risks to not participating. That shows that, yes, one needs countries to work together to get these solutions, but does that necessarily mean having a common base? Obviously, a common base is not part of the OECD view. Their view is that one could get the results without going quite that far. Some of that reflects the nature of compromise negotiations .