Tax Concerns

TAKEAWAY: TAX CONCERNS

Audience Member:
I have a question, which may be a little sensitive for you to answer. But nonetheless, given the EU decision regarding Apple this week, I wonder if you have any thoughts about Ireland and its relationship with the European Union and perhaps an increasing relationship with the United States and Britain, following an article written in a major newspaper here this week.

Kent:
I was with Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday inaugurating a new investment. We’re very comfortable with Ireland. As I said, we have unpacked our bags and we’re here to stay. We’re not tourists. And we’re very happy to be here in that mode. I understand that Minister Mitchell O’Connor is going to be here after me talking about this matter, so I’ll leave those words to her. But from the side of business as I see it, as the CEO and chairman of th Coca-Cola Company, as one of the largest investors in Ireland, one of the first investors in Ireland, 63 years ago—I know that date because it was in 1952, the year I was born—we’re very happy, and I am sure that many of my successors, when they come to Ireland and they come and speak here, when that investment has doubled, tripled to $2 billion, $3 billion in the future, they will also be very happy.