Sir, – If Apple had no special deal with the State, as Michael Noonan claims, can he explain why it paid so little tax? In plain English, please. Leave the folksy guff for the Saturday night crowd. – Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond, Sligo.
Sir, – There’s something very Father Ted about “money resting in our account”. Maybe “resting” is an overstatement. Perhaps “loitering” might be a better description? – Yours, etc,
CORMAC MEEHAN,
Bundoran, Co Donegal.
Sir, – If there was an international competition for ministerial dodging, ducking and diving, I am in no doubt but that our Irish team would sweep the board. – Yours, etc,
GEAROID KILGALLEN,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Like or loathe the Apple tax breaks, they are a secondary issue. The case was prosecuted under law designed to undermine the abilities of states to engage in active fiscal and industrial policy. For the third time in a decade, the EU has flexed its muscles while Ireland has taken the beating. Enforced bank bailouts, needling austerity and now threats to our sovereign right to manage our economy. The Irish people need to wake up to the true nature of this marriage and make for the exit before they stumble into the EU courts years from now, battered and bruised, seeking an expensive divorce. Our sovereignty and our prosperity are under the most serious threat since 1922. – Yours, etc,
PHILIP CLARKE,
London.
Sir, – All this talk about Apple owing us €13 billion gives me the pip! – Yours, etc,
BRIAN McKENNA,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – May I suggest that the one set of people who should not be allowed to decide how the €13 billion be spent is the Government? At least that way, we would be assured it would be spent wisely. – Yours, etc,
CONAL McMENAMIN,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – If the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), highly approved of by both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were in force now, then Apple could bring Ireland to an in camera arbitration in a non-accountable international "court", with no right to appeal or revisit such a decision. – Yours, etc,
JOHN WHITE,
Arbour Hill, Dublin 7.
Sir, – What do Ireland and Eve have in common? Both took a bite from the Apple, and look what happened! – Yours, etc,
KEVIN DEVITTE,
Westport, Co Mayo.
Sir, – As appealing as the prospect of €13 billion might appear, there is an incentive to the Government appealing the EU finding on Apple’s tax arrangements. If the ruling stands, there is a real prospect that any company that competed with Apple in Europe over the last couple of decades (and with a base in Ireland), could sue the State for conferring an unfair advantage on Apple. That could put a right dent in any windfall. – Yours, etc,
JOHN SMYTH,
Galway.
Sir, – I see that on Monday you quoted an unnamed Minister as predicting that the Apple tax bill “would not be much more than €100 million”(“Apple could face major Irish tax bill after EU ruling”, August 29th). I wonder which Cabinet genius was that? – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN KEOGH,
Cork.
Sir, – Is Ireland entitled to €13 billion in taxes on economic activity that did not take place in Ireland? Of course not. If Apple does pay over this amount to Ireland there will be an immediate demand from the countries where the economic activity did take place for payment of their share of this money. The politicians of Ireland who are happily planning how to spend this money need an urgent reality check. Very little, if any, of this money will end up in Ireland. – Yours, etc,
T O’SULLIVAN,
Dublin 5.
A chara, – €13 billion. Just think how many tribunals we could have with that. – Is mise,
CHRIS O’KEEFFE,
Waterford.
Sir, – The decision by the Government to appeal the European Commission ruling that a tax avoider pay back €13 billion to the Irish taxpayer beggars belief. The justification for the appeal is that the Government needs to defend Ireland’s reputation.
Yet appealing the decision damages our reputation even further. We have no credibility regarding our corporation tax regime. The US government, the European Commission and major European countries rarely unite on anything, but on their dislike of our corporation tax regime, they stand united and we stand isolated.
If it is hard to argue in favour of a 12.5 per cent corporate rate, imagine how hard it will be to argue in favour of a 0.005 per cent effective rate.
If the Government had competent political advisers and Ministers were capable of listening, they would have argued that, while disappointed with the European Commission’s judgement, it represented a past Ireland. An Ireland ruled by a different political culture, and cute-hoor sweetheart deals like this were no longer represented or tolerated in today’s Ireland. Within a few weeks the story would have disappeared off the front pages, the world would have moved on and everyone would assume that Ireland had cleaned up its act, even if we hadn’t. Instead, the Government has decided to appeal and drag this story for another several years!
Instead, the Government will be still denying everything, blaming and annoying everyone else, continually reminding everyone of our tax haven status, and dragging our reputation even further through the gutter. – Yours, etc,
JASON FITZHARRIS,
Swords, Co Dublin.
Sir , – Last month, Apple reported cash-in-hand reserves of $230 billion. Ireland’s national debt is in the region of €185 billion. It would appear that €13 billion is small change for both parties. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT O’ROURKE,
Lucan, Co Dublin.
Sir, – The Government and its agencies have long claimed that it wasn’t only for low taxes that the likes of Apple came to Ireland, but for our educated, English-speaking workforce and our infrastructure.
If that were the case, it would presumably be more sensible to use the €13 billion to improve our underfunded infrastructure and education system to further attract companies, rather than leave it to Apple, which obtained that money through tax mechanisms that are coming into question the world over. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS M CREAMER,
Ballinamore, Co Leitrim.
Sir, – Quantum physics seems to postulate that items can exist and not exist at essentially the same time. It appears that Apple has engineered the field of quantum finance by creating a head office that exists yet does not exist anywhere. – Yours, etc,
DAN DONOVAN,
Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
Sir, – I was wondering if the Revenue Commissioners might reduce my tax bill, due in October, on my “investment property” in Dublin? The rent is payable in Dublin, but I am resident in the Cork jurisdiction. The property may be classed as a “double-Irish” transaction, as it is mired in negative equity and still attracts a large tax bill. – Yours, etc,
GRAEME McLEAN,
Cork.
Sir, – Whatever about the Government’s response, we can be sure that the European Commission’s ruling is a signal that we should rebalance our industrial policy in favour of indigenous enterprise. We have done very well from foreign direct investment, and long may it continue, but much more support and encouragement should be given to Irish entrepreneurs and start-ups. Look up “Danish brands” in Wikipedia and prepare to be shamed by the comparison with Ireland. A country with about the same population as Ireland, with a similar agricultural background, few other natural resources, yet a fantastic array of excellent Danish companies which are international leaders in their fields.
Enterprise Ireland and other national and local bodies do a superb job, which Irish business people regularly acknowledge, but they need strong, committed political leadership, and much more resources. Could some of the ingenuity which went into designing benign taxation structures for multinationals be directed towards improving the environment for Irish self-starters? – Yours, etc,
PETER G KELLY,
Dublin 4.
A chara, – Does anyone for a moment believe that this would have happened if Apple had entered exactly the same deal with, say, Germany, or France?
No doubt your newspaper, in the coming days, will be full of arguments as to the wisdom of Irish governments in taxing multinationals at such levels, or the morality of those companies trying to pay low taxes. I am no friend of current or recent government policy, or of multinationals, but none of that is the point.
The point is that if our State can be ordered around by foreigners with impunity, about its taxes, economy, and its people’s jobs, then we are no longer a State whose freedom is recognised, much less respected.
I know that our power is limited, but it is not non-existent. I am no Brexiteer, but it is long past time that our Government began to inflict consequences on those who for years have demonstrated that they are not our friends.
And as all our elected politicians – left, right, and off-planet, now and since 2000 – clearly have no stomach for this, it is also long past time that we voters woke up and elected leaders who do. – Is mise,
COLM O’COINEAIN,
Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Sir, – I hope Michael O’Leary will accept a warm hug from this octogenarian. I also wanted to tell the EU people to get lost. Our Michael did it with more aplomb (“Government should tell EU to ‘f**k off’, says O’Leary”, August 31st). – Yours, etc,
SHEILA GRIFFIN,
Blennerville,
Tralee, Co Kerry.
Sir, – What the EU regards as an illicit sweetheart deal is in fact globalisation. This ridiculous interference in the economic arrangements of a sovereign state goes a long way in illustrating why the EU as a project is destined to fail.
Ireland would do better to quit the EU altogether and once again join forces with the UK. I think we two understand each other more clearly. – Yours, etc,
MIKE GALVIN
Winchcombe,
Gloucester,
England.
Sir, – With every fibre of my being, I declare I reside off this earthly world. Proxima Centauri B is an exoplanet of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. It is my chosen domicile. It does not have an Eircode yet.
As a self-employed person, any income I receive notionally passes through the Irish banking system, and the Revenue Commissioners tend to want most of it. By reason of the above, it should now be crystal clear that all economic activity actually occurs outside and beyond the Irish (and Earth’s) jurisdiction and should not be subject to any taxation by the Irish authorities.
The tax regime on Proxima Centauri B is quite generous, what with the long commute, etc.
I can of course give an Irish address for the purposes of tax refunds. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT SHERLOCK,
Churchtown, Dublin 14.
Sir, – iPod, iPhone, iOU. – Yours, etc,
RORY NOONAN,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.