Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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19. To ask the Minister for Finance the engagement his Department has had with the European Commission in respect of the preliminary investigation into Ireland’s corporation tax rules; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8386/14]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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21. To ask the Minister for Finance the communications he has had with the EU Commission regarding Ireland’s corporation tax regime or elements of it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8346/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 21 together.

Ireland, like all Member States, from time to time receives queries from the Commission on a variety of issues, including tax, and we always cooperate fully with such requests for information.

As last week's comments by Commissioner Almunia confirmed, the European Commission has been asking various member states to provide information in relation to their corporation tax regime.  This is clearly not a country specific or a company specific issue.   

Ireland has the highest regard for the operation and authority of the European Treaties has been co-operating fully with this information gathering process since June 2013. 

However , the essence of State Aid is about aiding a particular sector or type of investor and the Irish rules do not do that.  As the Taoiseach, myself and other members of the Government have made clear, Ireland does not do special tax rate deals with companies.   We operate an open, transparent and statute based taxation system that applies the same to all tax payers.