Mr. Jamie Drummond:

Absolutely. We are working on those issues. We have been working on transparency since the organisation's establishment. The original name of ONE was DATA, which was a slightly funky acronym that I was very proud of at the time. It stood for debt, aid, trade in return for democracy, accountability, transparency. Simplistic flows of cash do not get results, empower people, build capacity or enable countries in the long run to stand on their own feet and not require aid because they have achieved the goals.

Ireland once received a lot of aid, as did Germany - after the Second World War - South Korea, etc. There is a long track record of development partnership and getting countries to a point where they are then contributors through aid, trade and investment to global prosperity and security. Transparency and accountability are core to that. ONE has been part of a fantastic movement for greater transparency and accountability that has manifested itself in the brilliant work of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. That march of justice and transparency is fairly awe-inspiring and is revealing things left, right and centre. Warren Buffet once said that as the tide goes out we find out who is wearing their pants. As it reveals things, citizens can have better and more-informed debate about wrong and right.

It is important for legislators to do their job by identifying things that are wrong and making them illegal. Right now, there is considerable vagueness about the position and we need to make it clear and articulate. Through the OECD base erosion and profit shifting process much of that work is being done and it is very important. I am sure Ireland is engaging very actively in that. There may well be a role for Ireland in the future.

I recently spoke with a board member, Mo Ibrahim, who is a leading light for good governance. He is a Sudanese entrepreneur who basically brought the mobile phone to Africa, which significantly contributed to African GDP growth and poverty reduction in the past decade. Many people thought the mobile phone was a luxury item until he introduced an innovative frugal bottom-of-the-pyramid business model that could deliver these mobile phones. He did that through a global business, using global investment partners. It requires organising his business through financial centres that could be called offshore. It is important to have a well-informed debate about how global business investment actually works and then create and lock down best-in-class financial centres that are transparent, clear about what they are doing and do not participate in the rapacious, piratical creation of havens and loopholes the pure purpose of which is to steal profits from other countries' economies and then tax them at a very low rate tax when they arrive in one's country.

That is wrong. A low corporate tax rate on activities within a country is absolutely the right of the citizens and State to debate and agree upon but that kind of other behaviour is being identified as wrong in public debate by increasing numbers of policymakers. Through the OECD's BEPS process, those loopholes and havens are being identified and outlawed. It is important to get on the right side of history and get ahead of that process and we strongly welcome that.