Seán Kelly (PPE). – Mr President, firstly I must say that I think you always do a very good job in the Chair. I would much prefer a ‘Speedy Gonzales’ type of Vice—President than a dithering slowcoach, which we occasionally have as well, but I will not go into details.

Referring to this explanation of vote, regretfully – and unusually for us in Fine Gael in the EPP – we voted against our Group on a certain number of measures, and also against the final report, which is unusual. We did so because this is a very strong issue for our country, and we also think that the report goes overboard in, as they say, calling on the Commission, etcetera, to do certain things when certain investigations are going on right now.

Tax is a national competence. This has been recognised in various referendums we have had. We think, in particular, that trying to move to the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) is not in our interest and, therefore, we voted against the report. There are many good measures in it, but overall we think it is leaning in the wrong direction.