Ireland Unveils €10.5 Billion Pre-Election Budget Giveaway, According to Reuters

By Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries

DUBLIN – The Irish government has presented voters with a budget totaling 10.5 billion euros in tax cuts and increased spending as it heads into an election season. This pre-election budget also plans to utilize a 14 billion euro tax windfall from Apple to enhance the country’s aging infrastructure.

Prime Minister Simon Harris is required to call an election by March, with most analysts speculating that it will occur in November, allowing voters to reap the benefits of this latest budget allocation stemming from robust public finances in Europe.

The government has distributed the funds to various groups, including pensioners, parents, renters, workers, and welfare recipients, marking the largest non-pandemic budget since the Celtic Tiger era. This equates to approximately 2,000 euros for every citizen in the country.

For the third consecutive year, the government has exceeded its own spending growth cap of 5%, leading to accusations from opposition parties that it is attempting to sway voters ahead of the election.

"Today’s budget is unique in the opportunity it presents to plan, transform, and deliver for the future," Finance Minister Jack Chambers stated in parliament, indicating that supply constraints are currently hindering growth and emphasizing the government’s investment in addressing these challenges.

While other EU nations are tightening budgets, Ireland has benefited from a surge in corporate tax revenues, largely from major U.S. companies, resulting in one of the few budget surpluses in Europe. The back taxes from Apple are expected to boost this surplus to 7.5% of national income this year.

This windfall is a result of an EU court ruling that determined Apple had taken advantage of unfair tax loopholes in Ireland, which were originally created to attract large tech companies to establish their European bases in the country.

Funds from this surplus, along with 3 billion euros from bank share sales, will be allocated to long-term projects in water, energy, housing, and transport. However, the specific use of the Apple funds will not be determined until early next year.

Despite extensive capital investment, Ireland has struggled to meet the demands of its rapidly growing economy and population, particularly regarding housing, transport, and healthcare.

The budget also includes a "one-off" cost-of-living support package for the third year in a row, totaling 2.2 billion euros. This comes even as inflation rates have dropped to near zero from 5% a year ago.

Harris refuted claims that this budget resembles the giveaway budgets of the mid-2000s that preceded the economic crash, highlighting that the government is setting aside 6 billion euros into a new sovereign wealth fund and for long-term infrastructure initiatives.