THE APPLE BILLIONS ARE TEMPTING... BUT MUST REMAIN FORBIDDEN FRUIT

WE’VE had remarkably few political rows in recent days, but the consensus that we all have to pull together has broken somewhat when it comes to taking the Apple tax money. It was almost as if Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s patience snapped when he described Mary Lou McDonald’s call to take the money as ‘rubbish’ and said ‘she should know better’.

Taking a bite out of €14.3billion resting in a special deposit account at present and applying it to the manifest multiple needs might seem like a good idea. Apple has enough cash reserves to clear the entire existing national debt of our Government, so it’s not like we’d be risking that company’s own financial health by taking the money, a fraction of its cash reserves. However, as the money is being held in escrow by an agency of the Irish State, it is likely that Apple would successfully go to the courts to injunct any effort to take it.

The Irish Government is supporting Apple in its action against the European Commission, denying that special State aid was given to Apple, contrary to EU laws.

Even if our Government decided to abandon its support for the case, we would have to fear that in those circumstances the company’s massive employment commitment to Ireland – now 40 years in duration – could be lost and, as a consequence, other American firms might look askance at a perceived loss of Ireland’s reliability as a stable and safe environment in which to do business. Those things will still matter when this emergency ends.