Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will be aware that the General Court of the European Union annulled the European Commission's state aid decision of 30 August 2016 with respect to Apple. The court concluded that the Commission in its decision had failed to demonstrate that by issuing the opinions in 1991 and 2007, the Irish authorities had granted the two Apple companies, ASI and AOE, a selective advantage. The court rejected all three lines of argument put forward by the Commission and overturned the Commission's 2016 decision that Ireland had granted a state aid to Apple.

Ireland has always been clear that, based on Irish law, the correct amount of Irish tax was charged to the company and that Ireland did not provide state aid to Apple. This was the reason Ireland appealed the Commission decision, and yesterday's judgment from the General Court of the European Union supports the stance we took and our decision to appeal the decision. The State and its lawyers are now examining the detail of the judgment. As both the State and Apple have been successful in having the judgement annulled, the issue of an appeal for either the State or Apple is not possible and does not arise. An appeal is open to the Commission at this stage. The approach we have taken in dealing with this matter, in laying out why we believe that Apple and other taxpayers were treated correctly with regard to the law at that point in time, will continue to be defended by the State in any further action that may ensue.

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