Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

Discussions are focused on the possibility of getting an interest rate reduction. An argument about the rates has moved on to the base for quite some time now. The base is described along with the CCCTB, and the Commission has done a paper on it, which will eventually come before the Council of Ministers. It is before some technical committee at the moment which is making adjustments to it. There are 27 countries in the Union and all 27 of them have expressed unhappiness, to one degree or another, about the CCCTB paper. France has a view about the base which its officials are pushing, and we do not agree with that view, so we are not doing business there either.

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