How would parties spend Apple’s tax windfall?

The Republic of Ireland’s general election will be held on Friday – and the parties vying to form the next government have made promises about how they will spend Apple’s huge tax windfall.

In September, the EU’s highest court ruled that the US tech company had benefited from an illegal tax deal in the country.

The court ordered Ireland to collect more than 14 billion euros in unpaid taxes and interest.

The largest parties have all pledged to use the money to improve the country’s creaking infrastructure.

The cost and availability of housing remains one of Ireland’s biggest social, economic and political problems.

Fianna Fáil, currently the largest party, has said it will release €4 billion for social and affordable housing.

A further €2bn (£1.7bn) would go to a new ‘Towns Investment Fund’, which would be tasked with upgrading infrastructure to ‘open up more serviced sites for building houses’.

Their coalition partner, Fine Gael, has pledged to spend more than half of the Apple money on housing.

Sinn Féin, the main opposition party, has specified that €7.6 billion (£6.3 billion) would go to a public housing programme.

It would also allocate €1 billion (£830 million) to a compensation program for people whose homes collapse due to faulty building materials.

The Labor Party, which could play a role in coalition negotiations, says it wants to use €6 billion to create a state-owned construction company.

It says this would create “a permanent state capacity for housing delivery” and counter the “profit-driven delivery model”.

The Green Party, currently the junior partner in the coalition government, would use the money to go big in public transport.

It would use €7 billion, plus €3 billion in other one-off funds, to ‘supercharge’ the implementation of major public transport projects.

This includes expanding Dublin’s tram and light rail networks, reopening the Wexford to Waterford railway line and upgrading existing lines to Limerick and Kilkenny.

Fianna Fáil would allocate €3.6 billion “to improve transport networks”.

Fine Gael also has transport and roads infrastructure as one of Apple’s four funding priorities, without specifying the amount of money.

Fine Gael’s two other priorities are spending on the water system and improving the electricity grid to cope with renewable energy generation.

Fianna Fáil specifies €2.5 billion (£2.1 billion) to support investment in the electricity network and €3 billion (£2.5 billion) for the state water company, including money for connections to residential areas.

Sinn Féin would also allocate €2.5 billion (£2.1 billion) to energy, including money for a new renewable energy investment fund.

It said the fund would allow the state to invest in renewable projects together with private companies.

The party uses the example of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which says it has acquired stakes in more than 3.5 GW of renewable projects across Europe.

Both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are proposing measures that would be described in Britain as “levelling up”.

Fianna Fáil’s Towns Investment Fund would include a funding stream for new public parks and campsites.

It says this would support “the unlocking of disused or disused industrial facilities” and help the redevelopment of town centers.

Sinn Féin would put €1 billion into a new community investment fund to “improve the lives of the working class who have been left behind” by the current coalition.

It would focus on what the party calls ‘the beating heart of Irish life’: sports and games facilities, arts centres, childcare and public spaces.