THE GOVERNMENT PUBLISHED its long-awaited review of the National Development Plan today, but does it tell us how the Apple tax windfall will be spent?

The short answer is no. 

And it doesn’t seem like the government will ever give us the breakdown.

Today’s National Development Plan (NDP) review includes, roughly, an additional €24bn in spending. 

This extra money is made up of the €14bn Apple tax windfall; the sale of AIB shares, and money from other State funds, including the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund.

However, the government has opted not to give any breakdown of how the Apple tax money will be spent. 

This is despite both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael making specific commitments related to it ahead of last year’s general election. 

Fianna Fáil had pledged that the Apple money, along with the money from the sale of AIB shares, would be spent on five key infrastructure areas – housing, the electricity grid, water infrastructure, transport and health digitalisation.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael promised to allocate €10bn for housing and €4bn on energy, water and transport.

Specifically, Fianna Fáil wanted to see €4bn of the Apple and AIB money allocated to the Land Development Agency (LDA) to build housing.

When asked by The Journal today why there was no specific breakdown given, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said what they committed to in the election is “fully spoken for” in the NDP. 

He said the additional money added to the NDP today was being spent on things like water, improving the energy grid, and public transport.  

“We followed our commitments and our promises to the letter. If not, we’ve exceeded them in respect of the allocation of that funding,” the Taoiseach said.

The Apple escrow account was closed in May of this year, with a total sum of almost €14.25bn transferred to the exchequer.

Apple had originally transferred €14.3b to the account in 2018 ahead of its appeal against the European Commission decision, which found that the company owed Ireland €13.1b plus interest of €1.2b.