Ireland is incredibly rich - so why aren't we feeling it?

Germany may be in economic trouble, Britain has had a painful Budget depriving pensioners of winter fuel, while Macron’s French government looks set to fall over severe cutbacks…

But in Ireland, the money keeps rolling in.

We’ve just raked in an extra €17 billion in taxes in the year to November.

Only some of this (€6bn) was due to a once-off payment from Apple.

Most is due to corporate profits diverted from other countries into and through Ireland to minimise their taxes.

Our corporate tax take soared by €13.7bn in November alone and is three times what it should be for a country of this size – even leaving the Apple windfall aside.

That’s all fine and dandy but it raises some questions.

Other countries aren’t going to sit idly by as we wallow in excess cash they may see as rightfully theirs (with some justification).

Donald Trump - elected to put America First - has just appointed a man who specifically targeted Ireland to get back tax, jobs and investment money  (Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary).

Other EU countries are looking askance as we divert what they may regard as their tax money into our coffers all the while benefitting hugely from EU membership

We even have the cheek to spend ten times less on defence than the NATO minimum, while adopting a high moral tone with other countries about their ‘militarism’.

Meanwhile, we ask NATO members to rescue our citizens in trouble-spots and help patrol our skies and seas because we, the EU country most awash with cash, skimps to a ludicrous extent on defence spending.

The other big issue is what have our politicians been doing with the corporate tax bonanza to

1. Financially prepare for when it may suddenly be taken away

2. Distribute it among citizens (i.e. us!)

Anyone well-versed in Irish politics won’t be surprised to learn that they’ve done neither to any great degree.

After several abortive ‘rainy day’ funds were set up over the years, another was born with €4bn due to have been paid into it in 2024.

Will this one end up like all the others and soon get raided?

And if we’re so rich, where has all the money gone?

The Government has distributed some largesse in cost-of-living payments and some real (i.e. above inflation) increases to pensions and social welfare.

Yet the tax cuts it boasts about are largely illusionary as the whole system is not index-linked to inflation.

At the end of day, we’ve got back a few billion from those tens of billions in extra wealth per yearthat may yet be all too fleeting.

I suspect alas that the rest of the money has been spent in the usual way.

The politicos have enjoyed the luxury of throwing eye-watering amounts of money at every political problem – €6bn on Mica compensation, €725m on RTE for example, etc etc.

They’ve been able to cover up crises by pouring billions up into what are now routine cost overruns in mismanaged departments such as health - and ever-ballooning budgets for things like the Children’s Hospital.

And they’ve misspent billions more on the likes of €340k bike shelters and €1.4m security huts.

But if you’re banking on any of it filtering down to you, unless you’re a lucky bike shed contractor, good luck with that!