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

The two companies were non-resident companies. The opinion of Revenue was that the profits made by non-resident companies were not amenable to Irish tax. They were amenable to tax back where the parent companies were in the United States. The assumption was that while Apple did not pay tax on the profits which were accrued to the United States, they had a tax liability at 35% but that tax liability would only be crystallised into tax paid if the profits were repatriated to the United States. There was no attempt by the Irish authorities to open gaps or doors or anything else for Apple. We were very surprised that several years later there is a retrospective reach by the Commission in a way it had never done before. That is what we are appealing.