THE IRISH FISCAL Advisory Council has warned that it “would be dangerous” to “pump” corporate tax receipts into the economy.

The Council is the State’s budgetary watchdog and was established to offer an “honest and independent view of how the Government manages its budget”. 

The warning comes ahead of the Department of Finance publishing its annual ‘White Paper’, which is published every year ahead of the budget and provides estimates of Ireland’s receipts and expenditure for the coming year. 

The Council today said that the White Paper will offer a “glimpse of what tax and spending would look like in 2025 without the impacts of any new measures in next Tuesday’s Budget”.

It said that the “Apple money” is one of the main things to look out for from the White Paper.

“The White Paper will show a massive surplus in 2024 due to a spike in corporation tax receipts,” said the Fiscal Council.

The Council said this spike in corporate tax receipts will be in relation to the recent European Court of Justice ruling that Apple must pay €13 billion to Ireland in unpaid taxes, something the Irish government had argued against. 

The Council noted that these “receipts would be once-off in nature” and that the surplus will be “significantly smaller in 2025”.

“A large deficit would be likely if not for these and other exceptional corporation tax receipts being collected from a handful of foreign multinationals,” said the Council.

“Pumping these receipts into a strong economy would be dangerous,” it added.

The Council has also called for improved transparency in the White Paper itself.

“We’ve long argued that it should show gross rather than net spending,” said the Council, “which is hugely unhelpful.”

It said that these “general government figures would give a wider picture”.

Last week, Finance Minister Jack Chambers acknowledged that Ireland’s “fiscal position remains heavily exposed to volatile ‘windfall’ corporate tax revenues paid by just a small number of highly profitable firms”.

He said the Government has established the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund to manage the risks around windfall tax revenues.

The Future Ireland Fund deals with future recognised expenditure pressures including an ageing population and climate change, while the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund seeks to assist with climate change objectives and nature, water quality and biodiversity issues.