DUBLIN, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Apple Inc. has paid the first tranche of the tax money ordered by the European Commission (EC) to be paid back to the Irish government over alleged violation of the State Aid rules of the European Union (EU), said a minister here on Friday.

The Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed that the first tranche of 1.5 billion euros (about 1.77 billion U.S. dollars) of the so-called state aid from Apple has been deposited in the escrow account on Friday.

This is the first of a series of payments with the expectation that the remaining tranches will flow into the escrow account during the second and third quarters of 2018 as previously outlined, said the minister in a statement.

There will be no further official comment on collection of the alleged state aid until the full recovery has been effected which is expected by the end of the third quarter of this year, said the minister.

The minister reiterated that the Irish government does not accept the EC's analysis in the Apple state aid decision and has lodged an appeal with the European Courts.

"However, we have always been clear that we are fully committed to ensuring that recovery of the alleged Apple state aid takes place without delay and have committed significant resources to ensuring this is achieved," he said.

The EC ruled in August 2016 that Apple had received unfair tax incentives from Ireland, which amounted to 13 billion euros, and it had ordered the company to pay back the tax money to the Irish government.

Both the Irish government and Apple disagreed with the EC's ruling. Due to the delay on the part of Apply and the Irish government in carrying out its ruling, the EC brought the case to the European Court of Justice in October 2017.

According to the EU's rules, the Irish government and Apply must first follow the EC's ruling by paying back the money in the third party's account while they can appeal to the European Court of Justice over the ruling.

If the final ruling of the European Court of Justice is in favor of Apple and the Irish government, Apple can take back the money deposited in the third party's account.