A landmark ruling by the European Union’s highest court means Ireland will recover €13 billion ($14.4 billion) in unpaid taxes from Apple – a windfall that Dublin tried to avoid for several years.

This puts the small EU member state in a politically delicate, if enviable, position. Irish MPs are expected to decide how best to spend the cash injection before the general election, which must take place by March next year at the latest.

In a decision declared final by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that Apple must pay billions in back taxes to Ireland.

The decision was welcomed by tax justice advocates as well as outgoing EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, who called the statement a “major victory” for European citizens.

Apple expressed disappointment with the ruling in a statement, while the Irish government described the case as “an issue that is now only of historical relevance.”

The Irish government said in a statement that its position had always been that it “does not grant preferential tax treatment to any company or taxpayer”. A spokesman added that it would now begin the process of transferring the assets held in a trust to Ireland.

“The Irish government in particular is now in a position where it is telling the Irish people and the international community that it does not want that 13 billion (euro) – it is not ours,” Aidan Regan, associate professor of political economy at University College Dublin in Ireland, told CNBC by phone.

“They are facing great domestic political pressure, elections are likely in a few months and now they could have a windfall of €13 billion in a context where there are huge infrastructure problems and a housing crisis,” he continued.

“So I suspect that the Irish government will pay far less attention to what is happening internationally and the reputational damage that this ruling will bring, and will instead ask itself what it will say to Irish voters ahead of the election in a few weeks’ time.”

A spokesman for the Irish Treasury referred CNBC to the government’s written statement when asked for comment.

Ireland, which serves as Apple’s capital in the EU, has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the 27-nation bloc.

Ireland has consistently argued for years that the iPhone maker must repay unpaid taxes to the country. It had contested the case because it feared it could jeopardise the country’s ability to attract investment from companies seeking to limit their tax burden on foreign profits.

However, Tuesday’s ECJ ruling confirmed the European Commission’s 2016 decision that the country had granted the US technology giant “illegal aid which Ireland must recover”.

The decision comes at a time when Ireland is in the unusual position of running a budget surplus of several billion euros, partly due to high corporation tax revenues.

“The decision is lucrative for Ireland as it provides the country with a windfall, but undermines the government’s long-standing position that Ireland does not give preferential tax treatment to any taxpayer, corporate or otherwise,” Robert Dever, tax partner at multinational law firm Pinsent Masons, told CNBC by email.

“It is to be hoped that the damage to Ireland’s international reputation will be limited, given the changes made to Irish tax law in recent years, including the rules on company tax residence and the attribution of profits to branches of non-resident companies,” Dever said.

“The process of transferring to Ireland the assets of the trust fund established to hold the funds amounting to the tax debt and interest allegedly owed by Apple pending a final decision will now commence following today’s judgment, but will take a number of months to complete,” he added.

Alex Cobham, CEO of the Tax Justice Network, which tracks corporate tax avoidance, said on Tuesday he welcomed the ECJ ruling on Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland.

“But the ruling only underscores the abject failure of international tax rules to protect the right of countries to tax economic activity in their own territories,” Cobham told CNBC by email.

“This demonstrates the urgency of the global reform process currently underway through the negotiations on a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation,” he added.

Separately, Chiara Putaturo, EU tax expert at global poverty relief organization Oxfam, said on Tuesday that the ECJ ruling “exposes the love affair of EU tax havens with multinational corporations.”

“This ruling must not be seen as an isolated victory – it must force the EU to close all loopholes that allow companies to avoid paying their fair share of taxes,” Putaturo said in a statement.

“It is time to stop this plundering of public coffers and instead use the revenues to combat the climate crisis and build hospitals, schools and other services for the people.”