Apple is hiring another 1,000 more employees in Ireland particularly in their Cork office by mid 2017. On Nov. 11, Wednesday, Apple has announced that they will be again adding to the number of their growing employees in the said country. With this addition, and the addition of 1,000 employees last year, they will already have a total of 6,000 workers. It is said that among 10 workers in Ireland, one is employed by foreign firms like Apple.

In 2014, Apple has been accused by the European Commission of receiving illegal state aid from Ireland in exchange of maintaining jobs. The said issue hasn't been resolved and as of now under investigations. According to Ireland's finance minister Michael Noonan, the decision regarding this issue will be due after Christmas. The decision might be that forcing Apple to pay the substantial back taxes.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook said in the interview with the Irish national broadcaster RTE that whatever the outcome of the said investigation is, workers won't have to worry as their Cork operations won't be affected at all. He further adds that if the ruling is adverse, Apple will be appealing and so does Ireland. They will support Ireland because there is no truth to a special deal or special arrangement at all.

Cook was also firm in saying that they are not sure of the outcome but if the evidence the EU has is reviewed fairly, then they will find that Apple didn't do anything wrong. And that the accusations are just that, mere accusations.

Noonan commented that with the announcement of Apple's hiring of additional workers, it's safe to say that Apple's enthusiasm for Ireland hasn't been dampened by the controversy surrounding the EU's accusations. Noonan has in the past been confident that Ireland would be cleared of the issue but didn't want to talk ahead of what the ruling might be in case he would be perceived as prejudicing the decision.

For the past five years to 2014, Apple has paid an average tax rate of 2.5 percent on around $109 billion USD of non-U.S. profits, which are said to be a fraction of Ireland's 12.5 percent tax rate. Cook claims that Apple has paid the 12.5 percent rate on all the income they have generated in Ireland.