Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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130. To ask the Minister for Finance when he expects the escrow account for the tax liability of a company (details supplied) to be in operation; when the full payment will be received; the likely timeframe on the case in the General Court of the European Union; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53906/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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While the Government has never accepted the Commission’s analysis in the Apple State aid decision, we have always been clear that we are fully committed to ensuring that recovery of the alleged State aid takes place without delay and has committed significant resources to ensuring that this is achieved as quickly as possible.  

Significant progress has been made on this complex issue and the establishment of an escrow fund, in compliance with all relevant Irish constitutional and European Union law requirements, is close to completion. This will allow for the collection of the alleged State aid from Apple. The Deputy may be aware of a recent public announcement on progress in this respect. Officials and experts from across the State have been engaged in intensive work to ensure that Ireland complies with all its recovery obligations as soon as possible.

With regard to the appeal, 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 (GCEU), 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 was lodged in the GCEU in 2016.  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.

The case has been granted priority status and is progressing through the various stages of private written proceedings before the GCEU.  It is at the discretion of the Court to determine if there will be oral proceedings, either in public or in private.  It will likely be several years before the matter is ultimately settled by the European Courts. 

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.