Mr. Bert Zuijdendorp:

I do not think that is a question on the technical content of CCCTB proposals.

First, I would like to echo what our colleagues from the Department of Finance said earlier, namely, that the Commission also distinguishes between harmful tax competition and tax competition per se. As regards harmful tax competition, the EU has a long track record of discussions about and efforts to remove harmful tax practices in the EU. I refer in particular to the work of the code of conduct group which started in the late 1990s. That group has, over the years, rolled back harmful features of member states' preferential regimes in more than 100 cases, some of which involved Ireland. Virtually all member states have their share of harmful preferential regimes that were rolled back.

On the question of whether we consider Ireland, in the current context, as a country involved in harmful tax questions, I do not think the answer is "Yes". No, this is not the case. Have we had issues with certain preferential regimes in the past? Yes, we have but in this respect Ireland is certainly not unique. We have looked at all member states and have found fault in most. All we can say is that in this respect we are in a much better place now than we were ten or 15 years ago.