Apple tax case and legal costs
Deputy Boyd Barrett attacked the Government for opposing the recovery of €14 billion from Apple and for spending millions on legal fees. The Minister defended Ireland's tax model and said the case was still subject to judicial review, while Boyd Barrett demanded to know how much was being paid to lawyers.
Does the Minister think there has ever been any other government in the world that has been told it could have an additional €14 billion in revenue and said, "No, we do not want it", and then went on to spend €8 million in legal fees fighting to ensure we do not get the money? That €14 billion is more than three times the housing budget. Imagine what that money could do to address the housing crisis. Now we have an opinion from the advocate general of the European Union saying that the original ruling, effectively, was correct. Remember what that ruling was, that Apple was paying only 1% tax when it was supposed to be paying 12.5%-----
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-----and that it owed us €14 billion-----
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-----and the Government does not want it. Will the Government now withdraw from this case?
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I thought, when Deputy Boyd Barrett was starting his contribution, that he was referring to the budget surplus this year, which has been significantly contributed to by corporation tax revenue. As I mentioned to Deputy Doherty earlier, the tax code we have had in this country and the pro-business approach has been central to transforming this economy, to making Ireland what it is today and to making sure that, unlike many of our European counterparts, we have been able to step in, by virtue of having a good economic situation, to help families and businesses through challenges, including inflationary challenges, at the moment, something we would not be able to do if we had followed the policies of the far left or People Before Profit. We would not have a State that we could help people with and would not have the economy we have. There is an issue there, which I discussed earlier, which is currently under consideration by the courts. Therefore, I am not in a position to comment on that particular-----
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Tell us how much we are paying the lawyers. How much are we paying the lawyers?
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It is subject to judicial review at the moment.