Apple tax: Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary enters row with foul-mouthed riposte to Irish government

Outspoken Irishman says 'no chance' of decision standing up in court; Europe has 'no competence' on matter

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary poses in front of a projection screen following a news conference in London (Reuters)

Outspoken Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary said the Irish government should tell the EU to “f**k off”.

O’Leary labelled EU's ruling that Apple should pay Ireland £11 billion in back taxes “bizarre", and said, ”one of the fundamental principles of the European Union is that each country has its autonomy to make its own tax decisions.

“Frankly the Irish government should turn around - they shouldn't even appeal the decision - they should just write a letter to Europe and tell them politely to f**k off.

“The idea that you have the state aid mob - who've had more court verdicts overturned than any other department in Europe in the last 20 years - come along 10 years after the fact and say, 'no we didn't like that, we think you should have done something else', is frankly bizarre.”

O'Leary added: “I think there's no chance of this surviving a court ruling in Europe. There's certain things that Europe has no competence in.”

On Tuesday, the EU Commission hit the iPhone maker with an £11.1 billion tax bill, ten times larger than any previous bill for alleged “state aid”.

The Commission accused the California tech giant of paying just 1 per cent tax on its European profits in 2003, falling to 0.005% in 2014 - or £50 for every £1 million in profit it made on the continent. Apple has £69 billion stashed offshore.

Announcing the ruling, competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager said Apple’s “sweetheart” deal with the Irish government constituted illegal state aid as similar terms were not offered to all firms.

Apple boss Tim Cook vehemently denied that the company had done anything wrong and said he would challenge the decision.

O’Leary defended his own company's tax affairs, claiming that Ryanair was “one of the most compliant taxpayers in Ireland” having paid a corporate tax rate of 11.9% on profits last year.

In July Ryanair said it would “pivot” growth away from UK airports as a result of the Brexit vote which he said would cause “significant economic damage”.

The firm said its growth rate in the UK is expected to slow from about 15 per cant to 6 per cent next year and urged Theresa May’s government to approve “radical” plans for new runways at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

“Ryanair calls on the new UK Government to be radical in its decision making on new runways for London instead of picking just one (Heathrow or Gatwick) and calls on Prime Minister Theresa May to approve three new runways - one each at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, which will finally resolve the runway capacity issue for the next 50 years, while ensuring competition between airports delivers efficient facilities and prevents airlines and passengers being ripped off by gold-plated monopoly runways,” he said.

The decision over new runways has been highly contentious, with the government believed to be backing a third runway at Heathrow as the solution to the nation’s air capacity problems.

“We'll have more capacity to grow, fares will fall and in a declining fare environment, we'll win,” O'Leary said