Standoff over Apple ruling ends holiday vibes for Noonan & Co
‘IT’S oh so quiet, Shh shh/ It’s oh so still, Shh shh/ You’re all alone Shh shh/And so peaceful until You fall in love, Zing boom/ The sky up above, Zing boom/ Is caving/ It’s nice and quiet But soon again starts another big riot.’ Icelandic singer Bjork’s words in her song ‘Oh So Quiet’ could so easily have been penned by a love sick Enda Kenny as he tried to exorcise the mess that is the European Union’s ruling that Apple should pay €13m in unpaid taxes to Ireland. Long considered a sleeping, at times feckless giant in European economics, Ireland has also been a thorn in the side of many European countries for our 12.5 per corporate cent tax rate, our proximity and capitalisation of bonhomie with our American friends in big business and our ability to woo people to our shores with a pint of the black and white creamy stuff. It’s fair to say many in Europe have fallen out of love wth us. We’re like the messers in the class and Jean-Claude Junker, for one, has had enough.
TDs, fresh from a two-month break, have barely had time to even enjoy a few pints of aforesaid nectar at the Dáil bar, what with chief whips getting them whipped into a frenzy ahead of the vote tomorrow ( Wednesday) to rubberstamp an appeal against the ruling. Have you ever heard of such a clamour to reject a €13m windfall? The golden delicious Apple irony!
The EU President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned Ireland must obey the Apple ruling. He said the tech giant’s €13bn bill in back taxes is based on ‘fact’ and has to be repaid.
Speaking at the G20 summit of world leaders Mr Juncker said the ruling was not a decision against the US.
Apple boss Tim Cook was not impressed. He took a bite out of the EU and called the bill ‘political crap’ last week, suggesting that the European Commission was using Ireland to penalise America.
Kenny and Noonan have come out swinging and they’re not taking any of it. They haved accused Brussels of using the scandal to create a bridgehead to target our oh so sweet corporation tax. They claimed the European Commission was ‘ bullying’ Ireland in the same way it did during the bailout.
And so after 72 hours of crisis talks and two Cabinet meetings, the Government finally agreed to appeal Tuesday’s European ruling. To soften the blow they agreed to set up a review of other multinationals’ tax bills and to discuss plans to make our tax system more transparent.
Like our noisy neighbours in the UK with their Brexit, we are causing endless headaches for the powers that be in Europe.
As Noonan said on RTE we are the envy of Europe, most of which gets way more sun than us.
He said: ‘There is a lot of envy across Europe. You will recall the Taoiseach’s first meeting in Europe in 2011, there was an attempt to bully him by [French] president [Nicholas] Sarkozy to drive the corporation tax rate up to 15 per cent as a quid pro quo for the bailout.”
Even Independent TDs are siding with the Government, which shows how vital the protection of our corporation tax and special deals with multinational companies is to our employment figures.
The Government is standing its ground and Paddy’s Day celebrations in embassies across Europe are already no doubt being cancelled.
Why travel when we have it so good here afterall?