A Sinn Féin government would use the Apple back taxes windfall to set up a €1 billion fund for infrastructure projects in disadvantaged areas, Mary Lou McDonald has said.
Ms McDonald said the money would help communities across Ireland that have “been left behind”.
Floating the proposal ahead of the party’s think-in gathering in Dublin, Ms McDonald said the fund would be used to improve sporting and community facilities.
The State is to receive around €14 billion of back taxes from Apple as a result of a landmark ruling in the European Court of Justice last week. The judgment restored a 2016 European Commission ruling that found Ireland gave undue tax benefits to Apple, contrary to EU state aid rules.
The Sinn Féin leader said the money should be used for investment in the State’s infrastructure.
“We are committing to a €1 billion fund drawn from the Apple tax money,” she told reporters.
“A fund that will be for equality for communities that will be directed at those communities that have been left behind again and again and again by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments, the very communities that suffered the worst of austerity at a time when these Apple taxes should have been collected.
“We recognise that there is a wider job to do in building communities right across the board and investing in communities, and that will be a central plank of the Sinn Féin offering when it comes to the election.”
Asked how Sinn Féin would determine what areas were in most need of investment, Ms McDonald said the party would rely on the same sort of data used to identify schools that require extra support.
“You can use that evidence and that data similarly to identify the communities most in need of a direct and focused input in terms of infrastructure,” she said.
“That’s the thinking here. I recognise by the way that there is a wider job to be done in investment in sports capital and developing rural communities and so on, and we will come to that.
“But the purpose of this fund is to take a very focused approach for infrastructure, for sport, for play, for community spaces, for public spaces, for the arts in those particular communities that suffer particular disadvantage.
“There’s been a lot of talk about the Apple money and what to do with it. It’s clear to us that it’s about investment in infrastructure.
“These are windfall gains for the state, so it’s about investing in our capital infrastructure, but we think that we lead out first by addressing those day-to-day realities in working-class communities.
“So, you know, boxing clubs with mould on the walls, playgrounds or play areas that have gone to rack and ruin that you wouldn’t feel you could safely let your child play on. All of those things – the building blocks of a resilient and a healthy community, and we’re prioritising that.
“Obviously, there’s a wider conversation to be had and a deeper deliberation on the €13.1 billion that will remain, and that has to be a job for the next government.
“I don’t think this government should be getting presumptions about that. We need to think about that. We need to invest that very, very thoughtfully.”
