Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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16. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on his attendance at the ECOFIN meeting on 28 April 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21287/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The meeting I attended on 28 April 2018 was the scheduled Informal Meeting of Economic and Finance Ministers held under the auspices of the Bulgarian Presidency in Sofia. These meetings occur twice a year - held in the country of the rotating Presidency.  They are designed to allow participants to come together to discuss items of topical or potential interest in a less formal atmosphere with a view to possible orientation for future work.

I was accompanied to the event by the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland who attended the Friday Working Sessions.

I also availed of the opportunity to have bilateral exchanges with colleagues.

On the first day there were separate lunches for the Ministers and Central Bank Governors.

At the Ministerial lunch we addressed the topic of Deepening of EMU with a particular focus on the Roadmap on completing Banking Unionin view of the pending June European Council and Euro Area Summit.  The Eurogroup President updated Ministers on current work on the reform of the European Stability Mechanism - also to feature at the June European Council/Euro Area Summit.  He also took the opportunity to inform Ministers of matters discussed that morning at the Eurogroup meeting.

The first Working Session covered the topic of Convergence in the EU – Inside and outside the Euro Areaand was supplemented by a paper prepared by the Centre for European Policy Studies. As part of that session we also addressed the issue of Further reducing fragmentation within the Capital Markets Union - this time assisted by a contribution from Bruegel - a Brussels based "think-tank". Under a Miscellaneous Item a debrief of the 19-20 March meeting of G20 Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Buenos Aireswas provided by the Presidency.

The second day's sessions were dominated by discussions on tax matters where Ministers addressed the topics of Towards a common agenda for modern tax administrations: Improving revenue collection and fighting tax fraud in the single market and A renewed approach for the corporate taxation in the Single Market and tax challenges of the digitalisation of the economy.