Ireland, long known for the generous tax incentives it offers large companies, is falling out of favor. Not only is the EU litigating against the tax benefits that Ireland uses to lure in multinational businesses, but Ireland’s blatant anti-Israel sentiment has been threatening to turn it into a pariah country. It could well be time for the Magnificent Seven companies to leave Ireland and move their main European operations to more hospitable domains.
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Reports indicate that when Apple’s (AAPL) Tim Cook met with Donald Trump last week at Mar-a-Lago, a main topic of discussion was the hefty fine placed on Apple by the EU. The EU had argued that the tax concessions Ireland offers to multinationals are unfair, and now Apple owes $13 billion in back taxes to Ireland.
Rumor has it that Cook would like to move some of Apple’s money to the United States. Once Trump takes office, the United States is expected to become far more hospitable to big business than it has been under the Biden Administration. Thus, a shift by Magnificent Seven companies away from Ireland and toward increasing their business operations in the United States is indeed feasible.
Adding fuel to the fire is Ireland’s wrong-headed decision to support the International Criminal Court’s accusation against Israel of genocide. This is all while Ireland ignores the atrocities of verifiable dictators such as Assad of Syria and Khameini of Iran. Ireland’s insistence in cleaving to the Iran-promulgated narrative of Israel as genocidal, places Ireland on the wrong side of history. By choosing to ignore Israel’s right to defend itself against ongoing barrages of rockets and other extreme violence, Ireland is sealing its reputation as anti-democratic. This is in sharp contrast to Mr. Trump, who has shown his antipathy toward terrorism by stating that if Hamas does not return its Israeli hostages, they will have “all hell to pay.”
Already at the start of the Gaza-Israel war, Ireland had started to lose its dominance in the tech space, as hordes of companies pulled out of the Web Summit conference. Massive tech companies such as Google (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN) and Intel (INTC) withdrew in opposition to Paddy Cosgrove, the Irish founder and CEO of the conference, who accused Israel of war crimes. In effect, Cosgrove chose to support the waves of anti-Semitism occurring across the world instead of supporting Israel’s right to defend its citizens.
This week, Israel has decided to close its embassy in Dublin, in light of Ireland’s support of the genocide claims and its “extreme anti-Israel policy.” Added to the EU’s ongoing litigation against Ireland’s tax incentives, Ireland is indeed on its way to becoming a pariah state.
Other multinational companies such as Meta (META) have already started courting Trump, recognizing his business-friendly outlook. As Ireland becomes an increasingly small player on the world stage, it’s only a matter of time before the other Magnificent Seven companies follow Apple’s lead in reconsidering their connection to Ireland.
