Divided Irish cabinet to meet on whether to fight EU on Apple tax

People wait outside the Apple store in Covent Garden in London August 30, 2016. The European Commission's demand for Apple to pay Ireland some 13 billion euros in back taxes has put the country in the strange position of refusing the windfall for fear of scaring away valuable investment. Rather than welcoming the cash -- equivalent to around five percent of its gross domestic product -- the government has vowed to appeal the ruling, fearing an ever greatest cost to its economy and jobs. / AFP PHOTO / DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS

DUBLIN: Ireland's fragile coalition government will try on Sept 2 to overcome cabinet divisions on whether to join Apple in appealing against a multi-billion-euro back tax demand that the European Commission has slapped on the iPhone maker. 

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has insisted Dublin would fight any adverse ruling ever since the European Union began investigating the US tech giant's Irish tax affairs in 2014.