There is a long standing superstition among thespians that you never refer to Shakespeare’s Macbeth by its name, instead calling it the Scottish play, due to some mythical curse.
A similar affliction seemed to befall budget ministers Jack Chambers and Paschal Donohoe on Tuesday as they gave a vague outline of how the €14 billion Apple cash windfall (it will go on housing, transport water and the electricity grid) would be put to use by the State.
Across almost 90 minutes of speeches, the pair never once mentioned Apple by name, instead referring to it on four separate occasions as either the “recent judgment” or “recent decision” from “the Court of Justice of the European Union”. They didn’t even mention the €14 billion figure, perhaps not wanting to rile the tech giant.
An accompanying document on how the windfall might be used was blandly titled Use of the Escrow Receipt, A Framework . Some €14.1 billion is in the escrow account, which is invested in “highly credit rated and liquid fixed income instruments”.
The sum is the equivalent of just one year’s National Development Plan spending, the paper informs us. It also notes that since 2019, current expenditure has grown by 51 per cent to €105 billion, that the economy is at full employment and “one-off current spending would add to inflation”.
Some €2.2 billion was earmarked in Budget 2025 for one-off cost-of-living measures.
It describes Ireland’s narrow tax base as a “serious vulnerability”, adding that “near-term reductions in tax would add to demand and inflation”. A €1.4 billion package of tax cuts was included in this week’s budget.
It also notes that with the economy at full-employment, the construction sector was “maxed-out”.
“In order to avoid fuelling inflation ... increased capital spending must be accompanied by control improvements: focus on value-for-money/productivity, improving planning infrastructure,” it adds. Good luck with that.
On foreign direct investment here, it says “poor infrastructure has reduced Ireland’s attractiveness as a location for mobile FDI” and that “boosting the capital stock – especially strategic assets – would yield a significant return”.
“This would send a positive signal to the multinational sector,” the paper adds.
Apple would probably just prefer to get its money back.
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