Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is not agreed. I wrote to the Business Committee this morning stating that tomorrow or on another day this week, there will need to be statements on foot of the ruling, which will come out tomorrow, of the General Court of the European Union on the Apple tax case. This is not a small matter. We will get a ruling tomorrow as to whether the decision of the European Commission to award Revenue €13 billion in unpaid taxes plus interest from Apple will be upheld. Regrettably, the previous Government, with the support of Fianna Fáil, appealed that decision and supported Apple rather than taking the €13 billion we need. Whatever about the previous Government, in the context of Covid and its costs, and when we are looking at a bill for this country of up to €20 billion, it would be nothing short of economic treason to appeal a decision that awards those tax revenues to this country when we need them desperately to cover the bill for the Covid crisis. We need to hear, as do the people of this country, from the Government this week, immediately after that ruling. I hope it will tell us it will not further support Apple in its efforts to avoid paying taxes of such magnitude owed to this country, taxes which could transform our economic and financial situation fundamentally. That is what I believe should happen, and the Government should agree because this is too serious a matter with implications too enormous for this country.

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