19It has been established that the Commission received the observations of the Irish Government seven days before sending it a reasoned opinion. No provision of Community law penalises failure to respond to the letter of formal notice within the period fixed by the Commission by rendering the Member State's observations inadmissible. In principle, therefore, the Commission was required to set out, in its reasoned opinion, its assessment of those observations before specifying which complaints it intended to pursue, instead of wrongly claiming not to have received any official response from Ireland.
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