Apple tax should fund state construction company, People Before Profit says

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

Billions of euros in tax receipts from Apple should be used to establish a state construction company, People Before Profit has said.

Ireland is to receive €14.1 billion in back taxes and interest from Apple as a result of a landmark ruling in the European Court of Justice earlier this year.

The judgment restored a 2016 European Commission ruling that found Ireland gave undue tax benefits to Apple, contrary to EU state aid rules.

On Monday, People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said establishing a state construction company is the only way to deliver social and affordable homes at the required scale.

Mr Boyd Barrett said: “The housing crisis in Ireland continues and will not be solved by repeating the same failed private market-based policies and actions that successive FF and FG governments have pursued.

“We need tens of thousands of social and affordable homes built each year to cater for the many paying extortionate rents or stuck on housing lists year after year.

“The private building industry cannot build on the scale required.”

He said the new body could access the land, finance and labour that is needed at scale to directly build “at least 35,000 social and affordable homes per year”.

The party argues that a state construction company would also be able to build homes cheaper than the private sector by cutting out land acquisition costs and the profit margin as well as reducing sales, marketing and finance costs.

People Before Profit said close to €200,000 can be eliminated from the cost of building a three-bedroom home under such a mechanism.

Finance Minister Jack Chambers has said it is imperative that the Apple money is not used on day-to-day spending or tax cuts, with the Government instead committing to investing in the “known challenges” of housing, energy, water and transport infrastructure.

In the Budget announcement, he said a framework for allocating the windfall receipts should be brought to the Government for approval in the first quarter of next year.