Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern claims Revenue never kept the government informed on individual tax arrangements

Successive Irish governments were unaware of the tax arrangements between Apple and the Revenue Commissioners that resulted in last week’s European Commission (EC) ruling that the company must pay €13bn, plus interest estimated at €6bn.

Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has told The Sunday Times that Revenue never made any finance minister aware of the arrangements with Apple. Ahern became finance minister in 1991, the year of Apple’s first tax ruling. He was taoiseach in 2007 when Revenue made a second ruling.

“The Revenue Commissioners act within hard walls,” said Ahern. “I don’t think I ever saw in a finance bill or memo to government, either as taoiseach or as finance minister, something that related to just one company.”

Welcoming the cabinet’s decision to appeal against