Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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311. To ask the Minister for Finance the contact he has had with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. [39938/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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On 30 August 2016, it was announced that the Commission had issued a negative decision in the Apple State Aid case. This concluded the investigation that had been on-going formally since June 2014.

The investigation was a priority matter for the State. Detailed and comprehensive responses were 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. 

This engagement included meetings both at political and official level, including a meeting between myself and Commissioner Vestager in July 2016, and a discussion that involved the Commissioner at the informal ECOFIN meeting in Bratislava in September 2016.

Ireland does not accept the Commission's analysis in this case, which is why the Government has lodged an application with the General Court of the European Union to annul the whole Decision. This appeal is necessary to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state aid rules into the sovereign Member State competence of taxation.

I will also meet Commissioner Vestager when she is in Dublin at the end of January.