Apple ruling "cannot be allowed to stand": Enda Kenny

Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told the country's parliament that the European Commission's decision to rule that it had given Apple up to €13bn in illegal state aid was "profundly wrong" and "cannot be allowed to stand".

During a debate on whether Ireland should appeal the ruling by commissioner Margrethe Vestager, Kenny said that his government and those that came before did not do any special deals with corporations.

The Commission ruled that Ireland gave Apple a special deal on tax, with the iPhone maker paying as little as 0.005% on its profits in 2014.

Kenny's tone was adamant as he defended his country's tax practices in a defiant speech.

"It is not true that Apple was provided with more favourable treatment than others," he said. "There was no preference shown. The law was applied fully and appropriately, and Apple paid its taxes due in Ireland."

"This is not a Commission finding that stands by a small country that has played by the rules," Kenny added. "It cannot be allowed to stand."

He explicitly criticised the Commission for depicting Ireland as "a country prepared to play fast-and-loose with the law to gain unfair advantage", saying that it couldn't be further from the truth.

Opposition parties lambasted various aspects of the appeal, which is widely expected to pass, in the Dail Eireann meeting. Some pointed out that it was impossible to have an effective debate on the issue without the full publication of the ruling.

Richard Boyd Barrett from People Before Profit said "we fundamentally object to the fact that we are having this debate when we don’t have detail of the Commission ruling".