Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I, too, want to raise the issue of Apple and ask the Taoiseach if it was raised in Davos. I was not at the committee but I read the accounts of the EU Competition Commissioner's appearance before the Oireachtas finance committee. I read all the points put forward by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil representatives about so-called fantasy money and Ireland acting as a tax collector for the world but arguments around selectivity and tech sovereignty were forensically dismissed and destroyed, point by point, by the Commissioner. She made it clear that the more than €13 billion back tax is due to the citizens of this State. It appears to me also that she believes that what happened was not a misunderstanding, a mistake or a misapplication of procedure. The Commissioner is suggesting that it was a calculated, contrived and unique arrangement put in place to favour Apple at the expense of other companies, including indigenous companies.

If we lived in the type of society the Taoiseach appears to believe we live in, one could imagine there would be many reasons to be charitable towards Apple and to say that we do not need the €13 billion because what would we do with it? Could we use it to cure the crises in health or in housing? If Apple wants to appeal this ruling, that is fair enough but the Taoiseach should not appeal it and the Government should stop the waste of taxpayers' money on the back of the type of malpractice and evasion that obviously has taken place.

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