Mr. Michael Tutty:

The international position is also a factor. Changes in the US tax code can have a very big impact on our corporation tax revenue because of the high American presence here. In the OECD, to which Mr. Barnes belongs, the BEPS project is another thing that can be a factor and all these things are evolving. They have, to some extent, led to the increase in our corporation tax but they may also lead to a reduction in the tax in the future. Whenever there are big, unexpected increases that cannot be fully explained, one certainly should not base long-term expenditure decisions on the notion that one will have that revenue forever. We are a little dubious about all this tax revenue remaining with us in the long term, particularly the last half billion euro that arrived yesterday. We would need to know if it is a one-off and where it comes from. Mr. Coffey has a theory that it is associated with the June ones but if it was, surely the Department would have added it in on budget day as something it was expecting to get. However, it did not do that. We need to be very wary of this and I expect that to be the main stance of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.