After agreeing to appeal the EU’s ruling on Apple’s €13 billion tax bill, the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has claimed that if the state were forced to accept the EU’s ruling the Government could not spend the large windfall on ongoing expenditure.
Mr Noonan told the Dáil during last night’s appeal debate that if the state willingly accepted the large sum the Government could not spend the entire €13bn on capital projects as it would be quite restricted under EU fiscal rules.
Mr Noonan explained “If this was available to be spent, it would be regarded as windfall, and the fiscal rules say you cannot spend it for ongoing expenditure.” “So, in other words, in our language, you could not use it for current expenditure.’’
The Finance Minister told the Dáil the money, if eventually accepted, could be only used for debt reduction and, in theory, for capital projects.
However, because it was likely it would accrue to the exchequer in one year, the Government’s capacity to spend would be caught in the fiscal rules.
“You would not have fiscal space to accommodate it,’’ he said.