Labour leader Brendan Howlin has said it is "mind numbing" that the Government was "so ill-prepared to put Ireland's case forward instantly"following the European Commission's ruling which directed Apple to pay €13 billion in back taxes to the State.

"There should have been a strategy in place to protect Ireland's interests, presented by a united front of Government," the former minister for public expenditure and reform told Newstalk Breakfast.

"This was coming for a very long time. We prepared for it in government, we were briefed on it as it transpired. The only thing that might have come as a surprise was the scale of the money involved, but even that amount would have been signalled to the Irish Government in the past few days."

Mr Howlin said he was “fearful” that the interests of the country are “being slowly eroded by a Government that can’t make decisions because there is no essential unity. This debate that the Cabinet is having today - they should have had that last week in preparation for all this.

“They mightn’t have had all the details but they could have been briefed by the commission reps.”

Mr Howlin said that the Government is “intrinsically incapable of acting in consort.”

" If this rag-tag had been in charge in the last five years Ireland would be in a dismal place now."

When asked about what should happen to the potential tax take, Mr Howlin said he would like to “take the money and run,” and use it pay off debt.

However, he said that the money is not available “ because it will have to be put into an escrow account for five years. But if you listen to what the commissioner said yesterday, there are layers to this, we all say take the money and run. God knows Ireland needs it, but the more fundamental question is what are the consequences of that?”

Mr Howlin said that Tuesday’s ruling had put a hole in the confidence of the State’s taxation system.

“ There are 360,000 jobs dependent now on inward investment in this country and many hundreds of thousands of jobs into the future in assuring we have a system of taxation designed by Ireland, controlled by the parliament of Ireland that is not messed around by any external forces, many of whom have looked at the success of Ireland at attracting FDIs (foreign direct investment) over the decades with great envy.

“If they can’t get at you one route it’s clear to me they’ll come at you a different route.”