Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Finance to report on his meeting with EU Commissioner Vestager; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22624/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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In June 2014, the Competition Directorate of the European Commission announced its intention to open formal State Aid investigations into tax rulings provided to a number of companies in various Member States of the European Union. Since October 2015, investigations in three other Member States have concluded. In each of these cases the Commission found that the Member States granted an illegal State Aid to the companies in question.

While the Commission has opened a formal investigation in relation to one particular case involving Ireland, it has not yet made a final determination in the matter. 

This a priority matter and Ireland has co-operated fully with the process to date and will continue to do so. My Department has engaged closely with the Commission throughout this process.  Detailed and comprehensive responses have been provided to the Commission demonstrating that the appropriate amount of Irish tax was charged in accordance with the relevant legislation, that no selective advantage was given and that there was no State Aid.

Last week, ahead of the ECOFIN council meeting, I met with the Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager. During the course of this meeting, I underlined the Government's position that the ongoing State Aid case is unfounded, that there was no breach of State Aid rules in this case and that the legislative provisions were correctly applied.