The issue was first identified in 2011. And given the proliferation of pharmaceutical plants dotted around the southwest of Ireland, it was no surprise that it was a Revenue official operating in that region who first flagged it. Several cases had given rise to suspicion, and all bore the same characteristics. Engineers were working on a full-time basis with multinational pharmaceutical giants, but they were not classified as employees. Instead, they were routing their services through holding companies, of which they were the sole director and employee. The focus of the Revenue’s attention was not the corporate structure, but the…