Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: European Commissioner for Competition
12:30 pm
Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael)
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Reading the report, the Irish authorities were back and forth to the Commission at the start of the year saying that they were not getting procedural fairness or the right of defence. It was unexpected by all and sundry. Was it in any way dictated by the American election? That was going very hard at the time, and there was talk that Apple and other companies that had money that had not been effectively taxed to date would be subject to discussions with the incoming President, whoever that was going to be. As it transpired it was Trump. Was it in any way dictated by that sort of talk?