Ireland unveils extraordinary budget for 2025 thanks to a €14 billion surplus in Apple back taxes

Finance Minister Jack Chambers announced a 10.5 billion euro ($11.6 billion) budget package for 2025, which included greater investment in public infrastructure and support for social care.

The moves come with a general election looming: Prime Minister Simon Harris must leave the country before March 2025.

But with poll ratings high for his coalition government, some suggest he may call the vote earlier.

“Budget 2025 puts the country on a firm footing for the future,” Chambers told parliament.

The measures announced include extra child benefit payments before the end of the year, a universal electricity credit, increased welfare and pension payments and an increase in rent tax credit.

Ireland is forecasting its fourth straight budget surplus in 2025 at €9.7 billion, a much better performance than many other European countries, thanks to the massive profit tax contribution from Dublin-based multinationals.

The state’s finances for 2024 were boosted by 14 billion euros in back taxes from Apple after the European Court of Justice ruled in September that the iPhone maker had benefited from undue tax advantages in the country.

Ireland is now left with a single income which Chambers said has the capacity to be “transformative”.

The government plans to use the money to invest in “housing, energy, water and transport infrastructure”, Chambers told parliament, adding that the full framework for its use would be revealed in the first quarter of next year.

“We know that our public finances depend heavily on corporate tax,” Chambers said, before stressing that the government should avoid using these “potentially transitory receipts to finance permanent spending measures”.

Without exceptional taxes and “one-off revenues” from the tech giants, the country would have a deficit of €6.3 billion this year and €5.7 billion next year, according to the government.