Mr. Niall Cody:

We have significantly increased our large corporates division and we continue to increase the resources for work in that area. We spoke previously about realigning our structure and trying to increase resources to deal with these areas of higher risk. Our first engagement is to ensure that what is paid is correct. Every year, in the context of the annual budgetary cycle, we engage with the top 30 multinational groups. We survey them on their expectations for the coming year and on any further insights they might have. I will not say that includes the longer term because "longer term" does not make any sense in this area and I do not think these multinationals are any better equipped than us. That engagement takes place. When the monthly Exchequer receipts come out, every so often the Department of Finance highlights the fact that a once-off factor is included for that month, which is a result of information we received. The tendency, by the companies and Revenue, has very much been to take a conservative view. It is not in any way to understate what will happen. It is because there is such uncertainty about what is happening in the economy. That process takes place. We collate that material and feed it into the Department of Finance.

I am constantly amazed, whether business reporting returns are published on a quarterly, six-monthly or annual basis, about the surprise in the marketplace regarding company A's results being X% above or below expectations, when we look at a quarterly period. There is huge volatility. The size and scale of some of the companies, and probably the nature of the businesses they are in, means they have in-built volatility. For example, there is obvious volatility in pharma. There are also technical issues around capital allowances, intellectual property allowances and timescales for how capital allowances are written down. Individual companies can significantly impact on that. If we look at the figures, we can say that the rate of growth has been in a unique period post-Covid during which we probably had accelerated profitability condensed into a period. That is clearly slowing down in the tech sector and whatever is happening-----