$16.5B Apple tax windfall will pay for electricity and water projects

With the last remaining part of the Apple tax windfall paid to the Irish government recently, we are today learning what the country plans to do with the €14.25B ($16.5B).

The country’s prime minister has promised “unprecedented” investment in the country’s ailing infrastructure, with Apple’s money to be spent mostly on electricity and water projects …

Irish government receives €14.25B ($16.5B)

You can read a summary of the nine-year saga over whether or not Apple owed the Irish government billions of Euros in underpaid taxes in our most recent piece.

The executive summary is that the government offered Apple incredibly low rates of business taxes in return for using Ireland as its European HQ, and funneling all European sales through the country. The EU said that the ultra-low rates offered were illegal, and after a very lengthy legal battle that was indeed found to be the case.

While the law-breaking was done by the Irish government and not by Apple, the Cupertino company did have to pay the difference between what it paid and what the law said it should have paid.

Will pay for infrastructure projects

Ireland might have been on Apple’s side in fighting the case, but the windfall will certainly make for a timely investment in the country.

The housing market crisis back in 2008 saw property developers cancel building plans, which would have provided both much-needed housing capacity and the infrastructure needed to support the new communities. BBC News reports that while private investment has since returned, there is still a backlog in public infrastructure – and this money will help address that.

The Irish government is set to give 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 package of infrastructure investments.

Speaking on Tuesday the Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin said the investments being announced later “will be of a scale that is unprecedented” [with a focus] on basic infrastructure such as wastewater treatment and the electricity grid.

Together with funds already allocated by the government, this will see total spending of €100bn ($117B) between 2026 and 2030.

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