Ms Olivia Buckley:

In our research and our analysis of what is happening in Ireland and other countries, we have seen a lot of good work and good foundations for getting our start-ups and entrepreneurs established. I refer to local enterprise offices and Enterprise Ireland, which give companies a lot of support, especially those that are export-ready or export-focused. We have a very well educated workforce and graduates who are the brightest and the best and, as a country, we are putting a lot of energy and effort into them.

This week we are using our diplomatic embassies for expansion and trade and to reach out to the world. However, we find that key areas of our tax policy are holding us back. We do not have many tax measures. We have the EII, entrepreneurs' relief and relief for research and development, as well as the share option regime, but we must make all these work if we are to have any chance of fulfilling our potential and that of the entrepreneurs around the country who want to be a success but need financing and human capital to make it happen.

There was a question on the tax base. When we have a debate on a budget, it is hard to know where to get extra money from because there are many issues regarding all the taxes. We want to be fair in a very squeezed and rising property market and we do not want to punish people whose incomes may not match the valuation of their property. We are already getting a huge and disproportionate amount of money from corporate tax and personal taxation accounts for a very high percentage of our overall tax base, at around 40%. A lot of people with low to middle incomes have very low tax bills by the standards of other countries. We do a study every year of eight competitor countries and we know that we have a very low contribution but there has been much discussion about the pain people have gone through in recent years and the fact that the cost of living is very high in many areas.

Over many years of engaging with this committee and the finance committee, we have focused on the fact that we can only grow our tax base by growing the activity of our Irish enterprise. All the international agencies and bodies tell us that we cannot afford not to have the necessary resilience and not to fulfil our potential. We have a 30% investment gap so while our economy is growing, Irish SMEs are not matching it with investment and innovation and with managerial capacity building. The best way to grow our tax base is to give support to the indigenous Irish sector. The German economy does this very well, although it has been doing it for many decades. It is a very good model - if not to adopt then to adapt - and we could certainly learn a few things about expanding our tax base.