The Workers’ Party has welcomed the ruling by the European Court of Justice that Apple underpaid tax in Ireland to the tune of €13 billion, and that this money, plus interest, must be collected immediately.

Garrett Greene, Workers’ Party representative for Cabra- Glasnevin, said: “The initial decision by the EU Commission was made in 2016, at a time when our economy was at rock bottom as a result of the implosion of the Celtic Tiger, the collapse of our banking sector and the economic recession. Yet, instead of accepting this €13 billion as a welcome boost to our financial coffers at the time, the Irish state joined forces with Apple to appeal this decision. This disgraceful legal foot dragging has lasted eight years and even now the government only begrudgingly accepts the decision of the ECJ. This is another clear demonstration that the government is more concerned with maintaining massive corporate profits in Ireland than it is with the welfare of the Irish people.”

“All the senior government officials who have commented on this case have referred to the €13 billion as a windfall which cannot be used for day-to-day spending. If it is a windfall, in the sense that it is a very large payment that won’t be repeated annually, then it is only so because of a secret and illegal sweetheart deal between the Irish government and one of the world’s largest corporations, operated with the connivance of the senior echelons of the Revenue commissioners.”

“It is important to remember that the tax from Apple should have been collected on a day to day basis. The holes in our economy, that could have been filled at the time, formed on a day to day basis and if the funds were collected then they could most certainly be used to prevent those holes developing and make life more bearable for many people.”

“This is not a windfall. This is the legal collection of billions belonging to the Irish people to us and should be spent on what our economy was forced to do without. This substantial amount is used to create the greatest good in those parts of the economy in greatest need of investment, namely housing, health and education.”

“The Workers’ Party therefore demands that this money is used to create the largest possible landbanks to meet immediate and future needs for public housing and new school sites. In reality, this should not be necessary except that successive, driven by a Thatcherite ideology, fuelled by economic illiteracy, gave away the vast bulk of the state-owned, or state agency owned, land banks to the very same developers and privateers who caused our economic crash in the first place. However this €13 billion, gives us a unique and once-off opportunity to correct that horrendous stupidity which we demand that the government do not fumble.”