Well, Apple went to Ireland just to get a tax break, and its desire to stay depended on future tax breaks.
It's not surprising that Ireland would want to keep being able to give the tax break: very small taxes from Apple (and other companies) is better than no taxes from Apple at all.
> very small taxes from Apple (and other companies) is better than no taxes from Apple at all.
It's not just about the tax paid by Apple, but the tax paid by Apple employees. Income tax and VAT make up the majority of Ireland's tax receipts[0], and adding more jobs increases those.
Ireland did not make 21B from additional VAT and income tax receipts thanks to Apple - I estimate more like 2B - but she probably made an amount commensurate with the amount of value added by Apple employees in Ireland. The excess comes from Apple's ability to declare a large part of its worldwide corporate income in Ireland, which somehow is not what is under scrutiny here.
