Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The European Commission was advised of this relief in 1982 and on a number of occasions since then. The Commission has not given a preliminary ruling on this exemption. The Commission was in correspondence with my Department regarding this exemption most recently in April 2004 when it asked for information which would allow it to "establish whether the exemption may be considered compatible with state aid rules". This would clearly imply that the Commission has not made a determination on this matter. The requested information, which included details on the number of stallions, price of nominations, the relevant tax brackets, the estimated number of beneficiaries as well as a precise description of the exemption, was supplied to the Commission in July 2004. No further communication has been received from the Commission to date.

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