Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I appreciate that. The fear we have in this committee is that the work Ms O'Brien just described in regard to creating the research and development regime, if one likes, in terms of attracting foreign direct investment is undermined in any way by virtue of the proposals people would have serious issues with that, while wishing to continue working with the proposal.

I am trying to get an understanding of the arbitrary figure of €750 million in relation to the turnover and the common base. There is an 80:20 split between the domestic and non-domestic sectors. My instinct tells me that loopholes could be created to circumvent that. Perhaps I am wrong. Does Ms O'Brien have a perspective on that also? How does one calculate the €750 million threshold? It is conceivable that people might not come up to that base for all sorts of reasons or they could be very creative in ensuring that they do not come up to that base so as not to hit the threshold, so to speak.