THE FUND CONTAINING money which the European Commission has said US tech giant Apple must pay Ireland in back tax increased by €400 million in value last year.

The Minister for Finance Michael McGrath noted the 2023 Financial Statements of the Ireland Apple Escrow Fund at Cabinet this morning. 

The report, which will be laid before the Oireachtas, shows that the Apple escrow fund’s net assets increased from €13.374 billion in 2022 to €13.774 last year. 

The fund is put in low risk and highly rated euro-dominated short to medium-term sovereign and quasi-sovereign bonds.

In 2014, following a two-year investigation, the European Commission ruled that two tax rulings issued by Ireland to Apple in 1991 and 2007 “substantially and artificially lowered” the tax paid by Apple to the State.

The Commission ordered Ireland to recover the tax plus interest related to a ten-year period from 2003 up to 2014. This was totalled at €14.3 billion.

Both the Irish Government and Apple separately appealed the Commission’s decision, but also agreed to the recovered amounts being held in an escrow fund pending
completion of the legal process.

The multi-billion-euro fund is held under the terms of a formal agreement between the Minister for Finance and Apple pending the final outcome of legal challenges to the findings of a State aid investigation undertaken by the European Commission.

Apple transferred €14.3 billion into the escrow account in 2018.

The fund is aligned to the ongoing legal proceedings and will remain in place until a final determination is made by the European Courts.

McGrath also got Government to note the 2023 Annual Report of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

The NTMA borrows on behalf of Government and manages the National Debt.

The report states that at the end of last year, the Gross National Debt was €234.5 billion, while interest on the National Debt was €3.3 billion.