New figures in the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report shows that the total assets in the Ireland-Apple escrow account fell again last year.
Today's report shows that the assets of the Ireland-Apple escrow account reduced last year by €259m to €13.374 billion from €13.633 billion in 2021.
This was due to the significant increase in yields across global fixed income markets, and fund operating expenses.
The Ireland Apple escrow fund is a multi-billion-euro fund held under the terms of a formal agreement between the Minister for Finance and US technology giant Apple, pending the final outcome of legal challenges to the findings of a State aid investigation undertaken by the European Commission.
A European Commission probe over seven years ago found that two tax rulings in 1991 and 2007 issued by Revenue to Apple had "substantially and artificially lowered the tax paid by Apple in Ireland since 1991".
The commission found the technology company had underpaid taxes totalling €13.1 billion between 2003 and 2014 and ordered it to pay the money to Ireland along with €1.2 billion worth of interest.
Today's report shows that of the funds in the account, about 82% was invested in financial assets and 18% was held in cash and cash equivalents.
The C&AG said this marked a "significant" change from the end of 2021, when the total assets were divided between 96% financial assets and 4% in cash and cash equivalents.
Today's report shows that the escrow fund incurred operating costs of €6m in 2022, unchanged from the amount in 2021. These mainly related to investment managers' fees and escrow agent/custodian's fees.
