Dr. Brian Keegan:

Given the way our tax system is structured, there are very few reliefs available to the corporate sector outside of research and development so one must then look at the underlying activity in the company. We might have spoken during private session last week about a warehousing company in the midlands. It is not reliant on research and development or on new techniques or new software for its profitability. By definition, therefore, it is not going to engage in research and development in the first instance and, as a result, will not be able to avail of tax incentives for such activity. By and large, there are very few incentives left in the corporate tax system. One of the by-products of the reduction of the main rate from 40% to 12.5% was the elimination of various reliefs. For example, there used to be a system known as free depreciation whereby if a company bought an asset, it could write the full cost of that asset straight off against its tax liability. All of those kind of reliefs went and we are left with the 12.5% rate, research and development and the knowledge development box. That is really all that is left.