The narrative around what Ireland should do with the Apple tax windfall this week has been ‘ridiculously simplistic’, Shane Coleman has warned.

The European Court of Justice this week offered its final judgement on the long-running Apple tax saga – confirming the European Commission’s 2016 ruling that “Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover."

The money has been sitting in an escrow account for the last eight years – and Ireland must now begin the process of drawing it down.

The Department of Finance has confirmed that, due to the interest accrued over the years, there is now just over €14 billion in the account.

In the days since there has been much discussion about what Ireland should do with the windfall – with calls for more hospitals, housing and even an Olympics 2036 bid among the suggestions.

"Ridiculously simplistic"

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, presenter Shane Coleman said he was “stunned at the lack of sophistication in our public discourse” about the windfall.

“I just think it's ridiculously simplistic,” he said.

“Anybody who thinks our problems can be solved by throwing money at the wall hasn't been paying attention to what's been happening over the last few years.

“I know 14 billion is a huge amount of money but this year, in corporate tax, we will raise €30 billion, it is estimated – a decade ago, that was €2 billion.

“So, we're raising twice that amount every year at the moment.

“We're spending absolutely massive amounts of money; We're going to spend, in capital expenditure, €14.5 billion next year already.”

Construction underway on the site of the new National Children's Hospital in Dublin. Image: BAM Ireland

He said a lack of money has not been Ireland's problem for several years.

“The problem is the economy is already operating at full capacity and the fiscal watchdog has been very vocal about this, saying if you keep spending money when the economy is at full capacity, all you're going to do is increase prices,” he said.

“Increase prices for infrastructure but also increase prices for everybody else.

“So, you can have a cost-of-living package, but you're actually paying more because the Government is just throwing money at the situation.”

Bottlenecks

He said the real issue for Ireland is a lack of workers.

“This idea of, ‘Let’s just spend the money on building houses,’” he said. “As if it were that simple.

“If our problems with housing could be solved by spending €14 billion, they would have been solved five years ago

“It is not that simple. We don't have the workers to do it. The economy is at full capacity.

“So, I just think we are completely missing the point.”

An artist's impression of the Tara Street MetroLink station. Image: metrolink.ie

Fellow presenter Ciara Kelly said the money should be spent on a major national infrastructure project – even if that does increase prices in the construction sector.

“I personally would put a little bit of it away, but I think I would take €10 billion of it or something and throw it into a standalone Project Ireland thing.

“I mean like an underground for Dublin. I'm not saying it has to be that, but a piece of infrastructure that we would have for the rest of our days.

“That's what I would personally do with it but I do take your point that it's not the panacea that people are thinking it is and that there are so many bottlenecks in our economy that it is very difficult for us to just spend money and fix things.”

The Government has said that the windfall “will not impact” on the upcoming budget – noting that it will take several months to access and draw down the funds.