Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a new Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, who was finance Minister for Denmark for a number of years. She took up office on 1 January. One of her statements was to the effect that there would be a ruling by the end of the second quarter. I do not want to engage with her as she is in a quasi-judicial position at present. We will wait to see what happens. We have made our policy position quite clear. Given the Apple rulings made in the 1990s, the case against Apple is a case against Ireland. We believe that the case is weak and that it involves an element of the retrospective application of the law. In one part of the Commission's submission, it criticises Revenue because protocols that were only put in place in 2010 were not applied when the Commission had its earlier interchange of views with Apple.