Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Department issued a strong statement before the Commission statement was made. It defended its position and indicated the period covered was between 2004 and 2014. The evidence provided to the US McCain hearings with the company's chief executive was that since the early 1990s, the Irish Government had calculated Apple's taxable income in a way so as to produce an effective tax rate in the low single digits, with the rate varying from year to year. Since 2003 it has been 2% or less. We know the statement was clarified after a phone call from an official in the Department of Finance. If the investigation can only begin in 2004, and the chief executive of Apple gave evidence to the US Senate that these opinions were given as far back as the early 1990s - one of the companies in question was incorporated here in the 1980s - does the Commission have tools at its disposal to reach into the earlier decisions, when the structure was put in place?