Irish finance minister calls €14bn tax windfall from Apple ‘transformational’

The Irish finance minister has hailed the €14bn tax windfall from Apple as “transformational” just weeks after the government lost a case in the European court of justice arguing the tech company should keep its money.

Unveiling the country’s budget on Tuesday, Jack Chambers said the money would be used on infrastructure and not splurged on giveaways before the general election, which is expected in November.

Last month, the US tech company lost a high-profile tax battle with Brussels as the European Commission tries to clamp down on “sweetheart” tax deals for multinationals. The ECJ ruled that Ireland had granted Apple unlawful tax breaks and that Ireland was required to recover the money.

“The recent judgment from the court of justice for the European Union has provided the state with one-off revenue that has the capacity to be transformational. We know that the future economic performance of the state will depend on how the public infrastructure programme is prioritised over the next decade,” Chambers told the Dáil on Tuesday.

Instead it would be used to boost infrastructure for water, transport and energy systems along with support in housing to alleviate the crisis that has dominated the government’s near five years in office.

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