The European Commission issued a negative decision in the Apple State aid case on the 7th September. In so doing, they instructed Ireland to recover up to €13bn of alleged state aid from the company plus interest.
The Government will now challenge the decision before the European Courts, and it could be several years before this is ultimately resolved.
I have been advised by my officials following consultation with the CSO and Eurostat, that there will be no impact on the General Government balance due to the Commission s decision until the appeal process has been completed. As such, there will be no fiscal impact for the years 2017-2021 and the fiscal space calculations for this period are not affected by this descision.
The latest estimates of fiscal space available for Budget 2017 were set out in the Summer Economic Statement (SES), published in June of this year.