John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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302. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she has issued a reply to correspondence (details supplied); the action she intends to take on the matter; if she will meet all of the parties concerned in an effort to establish the truth; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17773/16]

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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303. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation why her Department did not reply to a letter from the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, ISME, of 29 January 1999; and her views on whether concerns ISME had expressed were null and void, as in August 1997 her officials had visited ISME where they had checked and approved three unpaid invoices, as was then her Department's standard practice. [17777/16]

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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304. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation why the parliamentary reply issued by her predecessor on 18 May 2004 denying that rules governing European Union grants had been changed in 1997 was wrong; and if she will confirm that at the time of that parliamentary reply her Department had been in litigation against the EU Commission pleading that it had been unfairly compelled by EU Regulation 2064/97 to reinterpret retrospectively and change the rules governing EU grants in 1997. [17778/16]

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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305. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the status of a case involving an application for a European Union grant and her Department's compliance with European Union Regulation 2064/97 since 1994. [17779/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 302 to 305, inclusive, together.

My Department, and previous Ministers, have been in receipt of correspondence from the individual concerned over many years in relation to the issues raised by the Deputy in his Questions. There have been a number of Departments and statutorily independent Offices involved in considering different aspects of the issues raised and insofar as my Department is concerned a complaint was lodged several years ago with the Ombudsman’s Office in relation to how my Department had handled the matter. The Ombudsman’s Office decided to close their file in this case without any adverse findings issuing against the Department.

I am further informed that An Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality has decided to establish an enquiry into matters raised by the individual concerned which come under the responsibility of that Department’s remit.

Insofar as European Social Fund Programmes from a decade and more ago are concerned, these have been deemed "closed" for some time by the European Authorities with all payments due from the EU Commission to Ireland fully reconciled.

Finally, I have recently received correspondence from, and on behalf of, the individual concerned and it will be replied to as soon as possible.