Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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As Mr. Cody said, the emphasis is on the bigger foreign multinational companies. In 2013, the Department of Finance reviewed the important role it is playing. The scheme is also viewed as a very important element of Ireland’s corporation tax regime in terms of attracting foreign direct investment to Ireland. In light of Brexit and homegrown industries needing to increase their tax credits, the officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform should ask the Department of Finance whenever it is looking at this scheme to give at least equal consideration to homegrown industry.

Paragraph 14.9 of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report places the emphasis on foreign multinational companies. Foreign multinational companies account for a substantial amount of the income we covered earlier. Can they get the value of the 25% and can they get the value of the 12.5% on top of that, notwithstanding their effective tax rate might be 2%, 3% or 4%? Can they get the 37.5% value of this? An Irish company paying 12.5% gets a write-off of that tax forgone at 12.5% and gets 25% on top of that, which is 37.5%. We all know the effective rate. I am not talking about the marginal rate. The effective rate for many of these international companies is very low and nowhere near the 12.5%. Do they get it at their effective rate plus the 25% or at the 12.5% plus the 25%?