Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has packed his bags and flown out to Ireland, where Apple has long held a major presence.
Cook stopped at Apple’s Holyhill facilities in the city of Cork, host to 4000 company employees, where he was set to meet with Ireland’s head of government, Taoseach Enda Kenny. After Cook took some time to address the employees, and after Kenny was given a complete tour of the facilities, Cook went on to talk about more business related matters with the Irish Taoseach.
Cook reportedly expressed his “exceptionally happy” attitude for the work being done by both the Irish government and Apple’s workers in Cork. More importantly, however, Cook and Kenny talked taxes. After all, Apple’s major presence in the country is a direct result of its low tax rates.
Kenny reportedly told Cook about what’s going on with the country’s current tax talks with the OECD:
I pointed out to Cook that Ireland, as a member of the [European] Union, is participating in the OECD discussions that are taking place now about an international response in terms of clarity about the tax position. There are fifteen different sectors involving that and Ireland is participating in them all.
After the meeting, Kenny denied to reporters that Apple, or any other company, were being given special discounted tax rates.
