> no one can seriously claim that any significant part of the work that produces Google Search goes on in Ireland

Hmm. Most of their European SREs who keep the service up and running are in Dublin, alongside most of their European customer support, European accountants, European legal team.

Arguably, they contribute quite a lot to the success of the service.

If they weren't there, would the service have made as much inroad compared to if they weren't.

So, arguably, their presence is _very_ material.

Also, you're missing the point of the single EU market.

Ultimately, it's a game of assignment and they chose to assign their sales(& IP?) to the country that was most attractive to them.