Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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I have one final simple question. I will not go into the effective tax rate because I do not think we have time but I would like to go into that. It is a quick question.

On the investigation that has been launched by the European Commission, we can play around with words stating that it is requiring information, etc. It is requiring information about specific companies. I note that the Commission asks for information on taxes and state aid regularly enough, but I would say it is rare that it has pinpointed specific companies, the Revenue's rulings on specific companies and the assurances the Revenue has given in relation to specific companies. I would hope that the Commission does not ask for this regularly in terms of rulings.

The question I am asking is simple. Would this have a major impact, if the Commission found that the Revenue was in breach of state aid? As I understand it, there would be a requirement on the State to carry out certain actions to recoup that money. Can Mr. O'Dea assure the committee that neither the Department of Finance, past or present, nor the Revenue Commissioners, past or present, has given any assurance, either in writing or verbally, to any company that how its operational structure interacts with the tax code would not be changed?