Tom Lyons
John Sculley, the former chief executive of Apple, has said that Ireland risks losing its "edge" if tax advantages for multinationals like the double-Irish tax avoidance measure is scrapped.
Mr Sculley, who was chief executive of Apple from 1983 until 1993 and previously president of soft drinks maker PepsiCo, said at the Dublin Web Summit: "There is a lot of talent in Ireland so I don't think it will be an insurmountable problem but it will take the edge off, if tax advantages do go away."
Mr Sculley said at a press conference for journalists he was very familiar with investing in Ireland from his time at both Pepsi and Apple.
“When I was with Pepsi we were the first international company to agree to locate in Ireland,” he said. “When I was with Apple we were the first high tech company to agree to locate in Ireland.”
Mr Sculley said his experience of the IDA, Ireland’s foreign direct investment agency, was it was an “exceptional” organisation.
"That was a big motivator for us to come to Ireland in both the case of Pepsi and Apple," he said. "They helped design courses in University College Cork which were important to the skills we needed in both companies."
"I have located businesses in many different parts of the world. Ireland and Singapore are the two top locations in the world," he added.
“Even without the special tax holidays and advantages Ireland has a lot to contribute including hard working people and immigration from people in other parts of the EU to come to Ireland,” he continued.
But he said this could not be guaranteed that multinationals would still invest in Ireland if it reduced its tax advantages too much while other countries did not follow suit. “It is going to be a challenge to get as much enthusiasm from international companies to locate in Ireland if there is a tax advantage somewhere else,” he said. “Maybe Apple loses its advantage in Ireland, I don’t know all the details in Ireland, but if everybody loses it, it will be a problem.”
Mr Sculley was at the Dublin Web Summit to discuss his new low-cost smart-phone brand Obi Mobiles which are priced at between $70 and $200 and aimed at young people in emerging markets who cannot afford iPhones or other more expensive devices. Mr Sculley is working with other Apple alumni including Robert Brunner, Apple's former director of industrial design and chief designer of Beats Electronics to develop the new phone.
