Mr Murphy, Fine Gael’s Minister of State for Europe, said that Mr Barry was putting northside jobs in danger by targeting Apple and calling Ireland a tax haven while Mr Barry said that Mr Murphy is “hysterical” and trying to distract from the government’s record. The issue has been a hot topic on the north side of the city – where Apple employ more than 5,000 people – since August when Ireland was accused of giving illegal state aid to the tech giant. It re-emerged yesterday when the European Commission published its report in full.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple HQ in Hollyhill, Cork, during his visit on November 2015.
Mr Murphy said that politicians like Mr Barry talk down the economy in order to further their own careers.
“For a cheap headline or a soundbite, they are happy to jeopardise thousands of jobs. It is extremely disappointing that someone who was elected to represent Cork North Central can be so reckless.”
“They want to drag the country back to the dark ages. They want high unemployment and civil unrest so that people will rise up in some sort of a socialist revolution,” he said, adding that seeing people like Mr Barry take power would sink the Irish economy.
However, Mr Barry said that Fine Gael have far more to answer for.
“The minister’s slightly hysterical comments are aimed at deflecting attention from his Government’s record on these issues,” he said.
“I have to remind the minister that it was Oxfam, not the Anti Austerity Alliance, which listed Ireland as a tax haven and that this haven was constructed when right-wing parties held the reins of government, not the left. It would also seem that I have to remind him that it was the European Commission, not myself, which instructed Apple to pay the state €13 billion. What is actually shocking for a Cork North Central deputy is to be part of a Government which is preparing to go to court alongside Apple rather than accept the €13 billion.
“I suspect a lot of the minister’s constituents – the ones with the overcrowded schools, the underfunded hospitals and the lack of social housing – might have a thing or two to say about that,” he said.
Mr Murphy said Ireland has a good relationship with the European Commission, but this issue was being pursued by people with an agenda.
“We are not a tax haven- we have low taxes. There is a difference,” he said.
