THE GOVERNMENT HAS a bit more to spend than initially thought following the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The European Union’s highest court ruled that Apple must pay €13 billion to Ireland in unpaid taxes, meaning the coalition have found themselves with an unexpected windfall ahead of the final budget ahead of the next General Election.
However, Finance Minister Jack Chambers has confirmed that transferring the money – which he said is now closer to €14 billion – from the Apple escrow fund will take “a number of months” and will have no impact on Budget 2025.
It’s also highly unlikely that Ireland will keep the whole amount, with the possibility of other EU countries claiming some of the cash.
For now, the coalition leaders have plenty of time to consider how to spend the money, and it’s safe to say that there are plenty of things it could be used for.
Since everyone is talking about the €13 billion, we decided to take a look at some of the things that figure would buy.
The housing crisis remains the biggest problem people are facing in the country.
In July, another homelessness record was broken. There were 14,429 people living in emergency accommodation, including 4,401 children.
Speaking last week, Taoiseach Simon Harris said housing remains the key focus for the Government, while Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has repeatedly stated that 40,000 new homes will be delivered this year.
According to People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett, the amount owed by Apple is enough to build 40,000 new homes in the country.
That figure works out at €320,000 per home, but others have suggested the €13 billion could build 50,000 homes – depending on cost.
The final cost of the long-delayed National Children’s Hospital is still yet to be confirmed, but we know that it has surpassed the €2.2 billion mark.
The latest price tag for the project, which had an initial estimated cost of €650 million in 2014, includes millions of euro for an expected payout to contractor BAM over ongoing disputes, as well as other contingency funding.
The contractor has made claims worth an approximate total of €770 million over the project, with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly saying that around 2.7% of claims had been awarded in favour of BAM.
The children’s hospital is not due to open until 2025. With €13 billion, we could build another six state-of-the-art facilities – though with the learned experience of the NCH, we may just be able to build more than that, and deliver them on time.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One today, the Health Minister wasn’t willing to speculate on how he might spend the money.
“That would be a matter for Government, and I think for the Oireachtas to discuss. I’d get in an awful lot of trouble if I started making a pitch for that,” he said, adding that any government could put the money to “very good use”.
While we now know the funds won’t change the spending plans that are to be announced as part of Budget 2025 on 1 October, it could be incorporated into next year’s budget.
With the country’s overall finances in good shape, the Government could opt to give every citizen a bigger one-off payment to help with the cost of living than what has been seen in previous budgets.
The population currently stands at 5.13 million, meaning in the event that everyone got a slice of the €13 billion pie, each citizen would receive roughly €2,530.
The All-Island Rail Review, published in July, outlined plans to make journeys between Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Derry significantly faster than travelling by car.
It set out 32 strategic recommendations to enhance and expand the rail system in Ireland and Northern Ireland up to 2050.
The €35 billion plan included bringing in faster trains, and more of them, with train services at least hourly between cities and at least every two hours on regional/rural routes.
Funds from the escrow account would see around a third of the plan delivered.
The much-anticipated underground railway that has been mooted since the 1990s has faced significant delays and pushbacks.
Plans for a metro were halted in 2011 due to the economic downturn. In March 2018, a new plan was published for the MetroLink, which would see a route run between Swords and Sandyford.
But this plan received significant criticism due to planned disruption of the Luas Green Line lasting up to four years, and was eventually changed.
The current project is estimated to cost around €9.5 billion and would see an 18.8km route running from north of Swords to Charlemont near Ranelagh in the south of the city. Construction is set to begin next year, with an opening year of 2035.
With an additional €13 billion to spend, the project could be extended further north and south, or an extra line could be added to expand the network and allow more people to use it.
Councillors in Dublin voted in favour of building a white-water rafting facility on George’s Dock in 2019.
But the plans were subsequently shot down by the public and politicians after much controversy. Due to planning restrictions, the site must still be used for a water-based development.
But plans for a new development in the area, which included a public lido, have largely ground to a halt, with a campaign group now pushing to get the lido built in Dublin’s docklands.
Off the back of Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry winning medals in the Olympic pool, and the Government announcing a National Swimming Strategy last month, the tax money could be used to invest in public pools around the country.
Taking the initial €25 million planned cost of the lido, €13 billion could get us 520.
The controversy surrounding the Leinster House bike shelter last week has prompted the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to call for an investigation into the decision-making process surrounding the very expensive project.
The new bike shed, which allows for storage of eighteen bikes, cost €336,051.30 in total. The cost of construction and installation was €322,282.78.
With an extra €13 billion, we could get another 38,685 bike sheds.
Fans were up in arms last week when tickets went on sale for the band’s long-awaited reunion for very high prices due to dynamic pricing.
After lengthy online queues, many people found that the only tickets left were ‘in demand’ standing, costing €415.50 each, and ‘official platinum’ for €490.50 each.
Rounding up the latter to an even €500, the unpaid tax money could buy 26 million Oasis tickets and send the population of Ireland to see the band five times over. There’s still a chance they will add more dates.
The RTÉ payments controversy produced many headlines as it played out over the summer last year.
But arguably none grabbed more attention than the revelation that the broadcaster’s barter account spent €5,000 for 200 pairs of Havainas flip flops for a summer party for corporate clients in 2016.
With the flip flops costing €25 each, spending the entire amount of the Apple tax money on this would purchase 520 million pairs – or, just over 100 pairs for everyone in the country.
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