Mr. Pat Leahy:

I will comment on the Apple case, which has been ongoing since 2014. It is a long-standing case at this stage. The European Commission has powers under EU state aid rules to bring that type of case and engagement. It determined that state aid had been given. The State was required to recover that money, which was circa €14 billion at the time, from the company.

The first court of the EU annulled the Commission’s decision. The Commission appealed that to the Court of Justice of the EU. As the Deputy probably has heard, the Advocate General recently expressed the view that the verdict should be referred back to the lower court. The higher court – the CJEU – will probably decide whether to do so in 2024. I would not expect to get a decision from it before then. Effectively, the Department and the State’s legal team are considering the points made by the Advocate General.

It has always been Ireland’s position that the correct amount of Irish tax was paid and that Ireland provided no state aid to Apple. We are now awaiting the judgment of the CJEU on this matter. We will see where it goes from there. It is a long-standing case that predates much of the agreement on tax that was done more recently. It started in 2014, so we are nearly ten years on at this stage. It is likely to continue depending on how the CJEU rules.