Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

José Manuel Barroso is very much of my view on the taxation issue. As Prime Minister and Minister and now Commissioner he has always been very supportive of my views on this issue. There is no ceasing of work on this. What is going on is that in the Commission, here and in other member states work is continuing in advance of any legislative proposal being brought forward. The work being done now is of a purely technical nature and to date there has been no substantive political level discussion or endorsement of it. We have no difficulty with that ongoing work to try to come to a technical understanding of what happens.

I do not believe the common consolidated corporate tax base, CCCTB, is the type of grand project that will ever progress into a policy area. Our view on this is that there is preparatory work to get an understanding of what is happening across 27 member states. I have no difficulty with that. If it moves back, as has happened a lot over the past 20 years, to some individual countries bringing this to a harmonised tax base, that is a different issue. I do not see that difficulty now and I do not think it would be supported.

My position on this has remained as it was since 1992. I would be the best-known member of the present European Council for my views against this. To be frank, one does not have to state them too much as they are well known now and there are plenty of supporters. They can go ahead with their technical work all they like and we will co-operate with it. Deputy Ó Caoláin's question was whether this would turn into a tax harmonisation issue. I do not think it will and if I did, I would not support it. We still have our own protections. Tax sovereignty is an area over which we have a veto. I do not see it coming to that in the foreseeable future and I am talking about years ahead not to mind the short term.

One of the great things about the treaty is that for the next 20 or 30 years it is now agreed it must be 55% of member states and 65% of population in favour of any proposal. The double majority system was a major success in ensuring for the long-term that small and medium sized member states would not be rolled over on issues, as they have never been in the European Union. The double majority voting mechanism is a huge stride. With respect, those like Deputy Ó Caoláin who have concerns that this might happen some day should be the first to go out canvassing to make sure it does not happen.

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