The EU’s highest court ruled that Apple had to pay more than €14bn (£11.8bn) to the Republic of Ireland
The Irish government has provided more details of how it intends to spend its €14bn tax windfall from Apple.
The money is being used to beef up the country’s National Development Plan (NDP), a €112bn (£97bn) package of infrastructure investments.
It will be spent on housing, energy, water and transport projects between 2026 and 2030.
It has also been confirmed that just under €1bn (£867m) will be committed to the cross-border Shared Island fund up to 2030.
Current Shared Island projects include the Narrow Water Bridge between South Down and North Louth.
No specific new projects have been identified in either the Shared Island strand or the wider NDP; details are expected to be given in the October budget.
Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin said there was a need to “immediately implement a step-change in the scale and quality of public investment in critical sectors”.
“By any measure, this will represent the largest investment in economic and social infrastructure in the history of the State,” he added.
Housing crisis
Infrastructure shortfalls are adding to Ireland’s chronic housing shortage, which remains one of the country’s biggest social, economic and political issues.
In the aftermath of Ireland’s financial crisis in the late 2000s, there was a collapse in public and private sector infrastructure investment.
The country’s economy has recovered strongly from that crisis, but infrastructure delivery has not kept pace.
The government has the money to tackle the problems as a corporation tax windfall, far larger than the one-off Apple payment, has put the public finances in a healthy position.
However, some economists have cautioned that a lack of capacity in the construction sector and planning delays will limit what can be achieved in the short term.
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