Ireland and Sweden share a view on taxation. Why is that so? We have the lowest tax regime in Europe and Sweden has the highest in terms of personal taxes. The Swedes have made the choice that the type of society in which they live determines that certain policies be put in place and paid for. They have also taken the view that the people who determine what should be put in place and what should be paid are those directly elected to do so. We have taken a somewhat different view but have come to the same conclusion. It is important we do not lose sight of tax harmonisation or its significance in terms of national sovereignty. Equally, the importance of differentiated tax rates throughout Europe should not be lost sight of from the point of view of creating competition. If some group in Brussels, removed from the realities of day-to-day politics in individual member states, were to determine the tax rates, we would inevitably have a situation where taxes would move in the same direction and there would be no internal competition in Europe to control taxes and Europe, as a whole, would lose in terms of competitiveness.