Since the Brexit Referendum, my predecessor, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, attended meetings of the Competitiveness Council on 29th September 2016, 28th November 2016 and 20th February 2017. My colleague, Minister Breen, attended meetings of the Council on 30th November 2017, 12th March 2018, 28th May 2018 and 16th July 2018. The meeting on the 27th September this year was attended by the Permanent Representative and I attended the most recent meeting on 29th of November 2018.
State aid rules did not feature on the agenda of these meetings. The Competitiveness Council is a consultative committee and is not a forum for direct representations from Member States. Changes to State aid rules is therefore not part of the remit of the Council.
My Department and its agencies are providing extensive supports, schemes and advice to ensure that businesses are prepared for Brexit. In November 2017, the then Tánaiste met with Commissioner Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition who has responsibility for EU State aid policy to discuss, amongst other things, the impact of Brexit on Irish businesses. An outcome from this meeting was the establishment of a Technical Working Group comprising representatives from DG Competition, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The objective of the Group is to scope and design schemes to support enterprises impacted by Brexit in line with State Aid rules.
Should issues arise that require an approach that does not fit within the existing State aid rules, this will be raised as part of the Working Group discussions.
