Has Ireland made any plans for what they’re going to spend all that free money on?
Just to put things in perspective, €13B for Ireland is the equivalent of the US receiving about $920B in free money. That’s some serious coin, almost half of what we paid for 20 years of warring in Afghanistan. So has anybody heard what Ireland plans to actually use that money for? Invading Scotland? Or is every Irishman getting free ice cream for the next 500 years?
Lobbying to bring back Touch ID and the mute/silent switch? 
Well…those on one side will want to cut taxes and increase defense. The other side will want more social programs. Maybe common sense will break out and they’ll pay down debt or do something that both the right and left can agree on…but that’s unlikely.
How about buying every American an ice cream for the next 70 years? 
Well, count it as yet another point for the EU’s take on corporations who insisted upon this.
Ireland, FWIW, has a long positive relationship with the fruit company, from the early days on.
It is, thankfully, mostly a nation of pragmatic centrists, nowhere near the level of division seen elsewhere, the money will be spread widely, and a good portion of it towards the EUs regional funds elsewhere in the continent.
Our coding community, thanks to Apple, MS, Intel, and many others whose EU offices are based here, punch way above their weight. Funding education and research here seems apropos.
Yes, from the early days… here’s the back of the keyboard I still use regularly (including earlier today) 
Apple (& Ireland) tried to game things and got called out for it. Ireland still got the money which is entertaining.
TL;dr: Apple FAFO
If Ireland means what it says, it should use the money to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund that invests in companies that invest in Ireland. It should dedicate all taxes that it is 'forced ’ to raise to that fund.
Of course, Apple could be a significant investment from that fund.
EU countries aren’t allowed to subsidize companies to gain an advantage over other EU countries. That’s what got Ireland in trouble in the first place.
From today’s Irish Times for those interested
“The Government could decide to park it in one or both of the funds set up this year to save for the future – one of these funds is a long-term one, but cash can be drawn down from the other more quickly to support climate investment, or keep State investment spending going if the exchequer comes under pressure.
Given that it is a once-off cash amount, the Government is likely to indicate that either via these funds or directly, the cash will be used to support State investment, including in key infrastructure like housing, water and energy.”
No ice cream then…
It must be so tiresome having a government that acts with care and responsibility 
