Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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136. To ask the Minister for Finance the status of the Government's appeal of the European Commission's state aid investigation ruling in a case (details supplied); if the backdated tax has been paid into an escrow account; the interest rate payable on the account; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15960/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Government profoundly disagrees with the European Commission's analysis in the Apple State Aid case.

An appeal is therefore being brought before the European Courts.  Such an appeal takes the form of an application to the General Court of the European Union, asking it to annul the Commission's Final Decision.  The Attorney General prepared the legal grounds in support of the annulment proceedings and the application has been lodged in the General Court of the European Union. As is normal practice, a summary of these have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union.  They were also published on the Department of Finance's website in December 2016.

As this is the subject of open legal proceedings, it will not be possible to comment further, in particular on any of the individual elements of the State's legal case in defence of our position. This is important to ensure that we do not prejudice our own legal case.

Notwithstanding the appeal, Ireland is obliged to comply with the binding Articles of the Decision regarding recovery. This includes the order to calculate the exact amount of the aid and the process which ensures that the aid is recovered from the Apple companies.  Both these processes are on-going and involve a high degree of co-operation with the Commission and Apple. Irish officials are continuing this work to ensure that the State complies with all our obligations.  The Commission have confirmed that they are satisfied with Ireland's progress on the issue of recovery to date.