Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure of the value of me continuing to ask questions when the crux of the matter cannot be dealt with here with the restrictions that are around it.

However, I think we need to address a few things. The transcripts which this debacle centres around speak for themselves. On 30 November 1990, Apple's tax adviser met with Revenue Commissioners and stated that the company would be prepared to accept a profit of between £30 million and £40 million for taxation in Ireland as opposed to actual profits in their accounts. The Revenue Commissioners asked the adviser to state if there was any basis for the figure of between £30 million and £40 million and he confessed that there was no scientific basis for that figure. Lo and behold, on 3 January 1991, a deal was struck between the Revenue Commissioners and the Apple tax advisers that the profits chargeable to Irish tax would be between £30 million and £40 million. This special deal involving an agreed charging structure is in contravention with tax legislation which remained in place until 2007. I think that is the crux of the problem here as well in that we have a whole lot of indigenous businesses around this country, including small businesses in rural areas and other areas, which have been hounded by Revenue to the letter of the law. This facility is not available to indigenous businesses and is anti-competitive. There is an issue with how multinationals such as Apple are treated and how they dictate what tax they are going to pay as opposed to how small and indigenous businesses are treated by Revenue where the full hammer of the law is brought down on them. Did the Revenue Commissioners sit down with Apple? Did Apple say what it was going to pay? Did Revenue agree that that was going to be paid?