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IRELAND HAS REPORTED a €343 million surplus for the end of November 2015.
The exchequer returns released today by the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform show that the country has taken in €41 billion in tax so far this year.
That is over €3.8 billion ahead of last year. In total, tax receipts were €739 million (11.9%) higher when compared to the same month in 2014.
It is the first time the country has had a surplus at the end of November since 2007. However, the underlying deficit is around €1 billion when one-off expenditures and incomes are removed.
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Finance Minister Michael Noonan says that the strong performance is down to better-than-expected corporation tax yields.
“Corporation tax receipts have been particularly strong, finishing the month €312 million or 24% above target. The Revenue Commissioners have advised me that this over-performance is primarily related to improve trading conditions and is broad based.”
With November a massive month for the intake of VAT receipts, receipts are now already up €934 million or 8.6%.
“This is a reflection of improved consumer confidence and increased retail sales for the year to date,” says Noonan.
Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin says the country has spent €48.2 billion this year, but expects to close the deficit by a full percentage point more than had been planned in the Budget.
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Are you serious? Any recovery in this country is down to 2 things : Foreign Direct Investment and Corporation tax incentives ……..and us, the taxpayer paying their property tax, TV licence, Car tax, USC, bin charges, water charges , VAT etc ( oops is that more than 2?
The health department is being given an extra €665 million as a “supplement”. That could buy trolleys for everyone in the country. But guess what, the money tends to magically disappear…until we discover scandals of health consultants earning €500k etc etc
I used to think the HSE was a money pit filled with bureaucratic incompetence, lack of transparency/accountability and a focus on everything but an efficient health service.
Then I spoke to people who work within it. Now I know.
Fantastic news. Now the big question arises, will these fools waste this money?
We definitely do NOT need to lock in higher salaries and pensions for public sector workers, already the highest paid in Europe. This must be resisted at all costs. And we must not pour more money down the health black hole, which just goes on higher consultants salaries and precious little results.
Invest in infrastructure, capital projects, public housing and eliminate the USC.
Not a matter of if Cal, it’s when. Our successive governments don’t know when to budget even in a surplus so it’ll be a spend fest with the election coming. Promises for all and country down the pan in 10 years time again. It would be great to say it won’t happen this time but there’s a reason boom and bust cycles happen unfortunately
Spending is fine, as long as its not on public sector salaries and pensions which are locked in for years and very difficult to reduce come the next recession. Spend money on anything else i say.
They already are (wasting the countrys finances). Apart from wasting it on themselves, alan kelly is blindly and cluelessly throwing 1.5 billion per year into irish water, it would have cost less to just fix the water system (don’t mention the politicians debt tax), and from what he said on rte last night, the amount of money he’s cluelessly thrown at the homeless crisis would buy a hotel in dublin and convert it into temporary accomodation. The guy as aspirations but he has absolutely no skills or competency to do his job.
Public service salaries and pensions hard to reduce Cal? They’ve already cut public service salaries three times since 2009 and also reduced pensions. How much easier do you want it to be? As for being the highest paid, maybe once upon a time, but no longer and Ireland is also one of the most expensive countries in the EU. It is easy to trot out tired old clichés. Every public body has lost loads of staff especially administrative staff. But workloads haven’t declined. Quite the contrary. Try to book an appointment in the HSE in any hospital without the much loathed administrators and see how far you get.
Big Question @Cal.. haha, course they will. Everything else you say is spot on.. That could do a lot but by time they pay the consultants, mess it up, pay them again, pay their “mates”, keep the public sector happy, there will be nothing left.. Should cut the USC by a lot more that was mentioned int he budget.. Temporary charge me arse.
Any chance that some of this money will trickle down to the HSE, schools, roads etc so it will actually be of some use to the people who put it there? Or will it just go on bonuses, brown envelopes & ‘consultants’
HSE? Throw more into that money pit? Are you mad? All the HSE problems could be removed by cutting unnecessary staff and money waste. Everybody who works in the HSE knows that…..except those who aren’t needed themselves and the unions would never admit it……
Ha ha, good one. FF were in a similar position during the late nineties and especially the noughties and look where they’re wreckless spending and ineptitude got them. It’s a time for prudent investment not splashing the cash
Give everyone in the country who is a citizen regardless of age colour or creed 1000 euros…and let us share in the wealth if only for the sake of illusion…..
I am not sure.I have considered the Mossad as being responsible for my lack of political success.That thought may be sourced in an LSD flashback I may or may not have had. I cannot remember which it is.To be honest I have not got a clue ….What do you think ?…..Is it like an image thing?? CIA involvement in plot considered low risk….?…we are all doomed….
Can’t bear to look at Burtons smug puss and slap labour on the back while at the same time people are struggling to make ends meet including the people who are working
Brilliant! And how did these morons achieve this “success”. They just went off and raised taxes and introduced austerity to fill the gov bank account while at the same time crippling hundreds of thousands of people financially. while they also pay themselves exorbitant unjustifiable salaries, expenses and pensions. If thats their measure of success, then they shouldn’t be in politics. Hopefully the next gov will have some level of left wing qualities and will have some decent values and will remove the ridiculous political pensions that these criminals are making off with.
They are shouting praise on the amount of money thats going into the state bank accounts through crippling taxes while at the same time opening food banks for thousands of people around the country. Thats disgusting behaviour. Get these clowns out now.
PAYE, PRSI, USC, VAT, WATER CHARGES, BIN CHARGES, PROPERTY TAX. . . .
How on earth did our wonderful caring Government help us all through this crisis ?
No Derek of course you’re not meant to believe facts if they contradict your worldview. The Revenue are clearly having us on. Corporations are clearly not paying more tax even though the receipts say otherwise. Just keep pretending and then base your decision on what you wish to believe rather than what’s actually happening. What could possibly go wrong?
Our external debt remains at $264,000,000,000 – over 103% of GDP and in the top 30 of highly borrowed countries. The temporary surplus is nothing to get carried away about…
In terms of debt per capita – we’re in the world’s top 15! At about $52,000 per person. We have a VERY long way to go – and the odd surplus should be taken in context….
Obviously the best gov results ever before the election. Massive debt created by a couple of hundred incompetent politicians, then lumped onto the ordinary people while the same politicians get away scot free and fully expect our vote of confidence again in the upcoming election. Mad stuff!
Yes Adrian. But we continue – time after time – to vote in these incompetent politicians. In recent years, FF, FG, LB. Many were not only incapable, but also crooked. Now some are even considering SFIRA to run our country…
Ger, all that matters is the annual interest repayments, not the nominal debt. As we can borrow quite cheaply, the annual repayments are becoming more affordable.
It seems like as long as the gov bank account is raking in the money and the politicians are paying themselves ridiculous money, the gov sees this as a “success” regardless of the welfare of the citizens of the state.
All those people living in B&B’s, hostels, hotels and walking the streets without a home should feel proud to have contributed all they have to this fantastic recovery in the Government coffers……………hang on a minute, WTF!
Great news that there is a surplus. Goes to show that having a reliable government will restore confidence in the country! We would never have seen that we could have this level of success five years ago.
The Public Sector unions will be all over this like a cheap suit. Get ready for all manner of pay demands relaxing of austerity measures, reversing of productivity measures in the LRA, reinstatement of ‘bank time’, new social partnership agreements. Having Howlin, a labour man, in charge of public expenditure is like having John Gilligan appointed governor of Mountjoy.
Why have i an ingling feeling that FG and Lab have been withholding this money from people who needed for maybe 2 3 years so they could look good for the GE while some people were living on the streets but that dies not worry FG as long as they are voted in, people can die as long as FG and Labour get in.
People out there who may vote FG Lab please do not for the sake of it, think hard and vote with your conscience.
Michael – that’s just the national debt. The total external debt is $60 billion more. This country will not be out of the mire – for, at least, a couple of generations. Yet we continue to blame everyone else. The World Bank, ECB, EU etc. And seem unwilling to accept that it was us – who elected our crooked/incompetent/mediocre politicians, who made the disastrous decisions on our behalf…
They made bad decisions due to a lack of knowledge and cop on and then were told by greedy and inept people who run the World Bank, ECB, EU etc as well what to do, when they were inept and greedy themselves…
The ECB told the banks have our cheap Euro with cheap interest rates on borrowing the Euro and told the banks have more and more in order to have the Euro increase on the international markets to increase its value as a currency. The banks loved it as did those who borrowed…
Most of the staff behind the Euro came from Goldman Sachs as did Dragi…
Great news indeed. Just imagine how much we’d be in the black if we applied the same tax rules to the tax avoiders our govt. is so afraid of?? Sorry for saying this and no disrespect meant to black people but our spineless govt. is an ‘uncle tom’ bunch of whip crackers to US commercial enterprise.
Corruption,I mean corporation tax up and none of them can explain it.last few months in government and a sudden windfall of good news.lies,lies,lies,and families living on the streets, patients dying,for fg,lab,to look good to the electorate coming up to GE.
I suppose these useless politicians know they don’t have the skills to deal with the issues they are employed for like homelessness, rent controls, hospital overcrowding and providing adequate public services, so its easier for them to just collect the taxes, make the economy look good and then try and spin and trick the public into thinking they’re successful.
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