Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

The exchequer tax take is €500 million ahead of target

Despite the positive overall picture, overspend in the Department of Health is still proving a drag on State finances.

THE STATE HAS taken in €500 million more than it had hoped for in tax so far this year.

The figure for the first six months of the year currently stands at €221 million ahead of target, but is artificially low due to a slight delay in processing a €285 million payload from corporation tax returns.

The corporation returns will be included in the July exchequer figures, Department of Finance officials said today. The payments were slowed down by delays associated with the introduction of the Single European Payment Area regulations.

Department of Finance principal officer for budgetary policy John Palmer said that the returns were “a good sign for the economy”.

Full year

While the returns mark the end of what has been a broadly positive six months for the State’s finances, Finance officials won’t yet predict that the gains would be carried through to the end of the year.

A lot will depend, they said, on the returns filed during the period from Autumn to the end of the year, which includes the dates on which self-employed persons must file their income tax.

Overall, the budget deficit is just under €5 billion for the first half of the year, which is a €1.7 billion improvement on 2013.

The improvement in the property market has translated to a stamp duty haul that is €50 million ahead of target.

Around two thirds of this can be attributed to sales of commercial property, with the remainder raised from residential transactions.

Social Protection was again the largest spending department, accounting for 38% of all voted expenditure for this year.

A decrease in unemployment benefits as a result of the improving job market enabled Joan Burton’s department to come in ahead of target by 0.2%.

Health was in second place, with its €6.9 billion spend accounting for 27% of all expenditure.

However, the Department headed up by the beleaguered James Reilly still posted a €200 million overrun.

In a joint statement issued along with the figures, Ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin called the results “solid”.

The statement said: “The steps taken to stabilise the public finances over the last number of years have laid the foundation for the improvements in the domestic economy and, most importantly, the increase in jobs that we are no seeing.”

Both said that the Government remained committed to narrowing the budget deficit to under 3% by 2015.

Overspend

In a note issued in the aftermath of the release, Davy chief economist Conall MacCoille pointed to a “massive overspend” in the Department of Health which had in turn caused a €10 million overspend in net voted expenditure.

Despite this, he said that “spending arithmetic [is] still looking better than expected heading into next year’s budget”.

Mac Coille said that the improvement in the exchequer balance – which is around  €1 billion to the good compared to expectations for the first half of the year – will be politically useful as the Government angles for a lesser than planned adjustment in Budget 2015.

“[This] will surely be seized upon as political cover to reduce this year’s Budget adjustment to around €1 billion, below the €2 billion originally planned.”

Read: 200,000 homeowners told property tax will be taken from their wages and pensions>

Read: 2014 tax take €466 million ahead of target, spending below projections>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
54 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SerotoninWars
    Favourite SerotoninWars
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 2:26 PM

    Terrifying but sadly all too predictable as temperatures rise. You’d hope this would wake a few of the deniers up as it’s more local than some of the countries people chauvinistically dismiss. But alas these people would still be posting their copy and paste, Trump n dumpster science support, while the fire or flood is on their doorstep.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall English
    Favourite Niall English
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 2:43 PM

    @SerotoninWars: you do realize they’ve had wildfires all over the globe for centuries?

    49
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan O'Brien
    Favourite Brendan O'Brien
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 2:45 PM

    @Niall English: You do realise that they have been far worse in recent years on account of climate change?

    25
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
    Favourite ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 4:19 PM

    @Niall English: You do realise that ever more parched woodlands catch fire ever more easily, which spreads ever more quickly?

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
    Favourite ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 4:28 PM

    @JOHN O CONNELL: You mean when there were only a few millions of people?

    And vast areas of the planet were covered in forests?

    Imagine that!

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan O'Brien
    Favourite Brendan O'Brien
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 4:43 PM

    @JOHN O CONNELL: Those fires were caused by a collision with fragments of a comet. What is your point?

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute john mac
    Favourite john mac
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 7:04 PM

    @JOHN O CONNELL: Younger Dryas

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute P. V. Aglue
    Favourite P. V. Aglue
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 11:18 AM

    It must have all grown back, from being burnt the last few years

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan O'Brien
    Favourite Brendan O'Brien
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 2:13 PM

    @P. V. Aglue: You think houses and factories grow back?

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Padraig O'Brien
    Favourite Padraig O'Brien
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 1:12 PM

    What did the Greeks ever do for us?

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thesaltyurchin
    Favourite Thesaltyurchin
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 2:24 PM

    @Padraig O’Brien: The birthplace of western thinking.

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Jordan
    Favourite David Jordan
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 2:41 PM

    @Padraig O’Brien: Plato, Aristotle Euclid’s geometry aid the foundations for European rationality and scientific inquiry, and influenced the development of European science and mathematics. The epics of Homer and the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles deeply influenced European literature; their Greek humanism, that emphasized individual dignity, profoundly affected the development of European and American literary traditions. The music of Ancient Greece, particularly the theoretical frameworks of harmonics developed by the likes of Pythagoras, laid the foundations of Western music theory. And the political ideas of Ancient Greece, particularly the concept of democracy as practised in Athens, have had a lasting impact on European politics and systems of government.

    26
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
    Favourite ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 4:11 PM

    @David Jordan: I frequently reread an old school text book on ancient Greek history by Bury.
    (Am reading it again at the moment.)

    Fascinating.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fr. Fintan Stack
    Favourite Fr. Fintan Stack
    Report
    Aug 13th 2024, 4:29 PM

    @David Jordan: “The music of Ancient Greece, particularly the theoretical frameworks of harmonics developed by the likes of Pythagoras, laid the foundations of Western music theory”.
    And then (c)rap came along and that all went out the window.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Zmeevo Libe
    Favourite Zmeevo Libe
    Report
    Aug 14th 2024, 1:43 PM

    Here in Bulgaria the fires started in June and keep going. There is several at any given time, and once a fire is put down, another one starts in a different place. There are constant appeals for volunteers to help the fire service, who are exhausted. Turkey sent fire trucks to help, and the Chesch republic sent two planes. What seems to be missing is coordinated EU level approach to this – Southern Europe is burning, and will continue burning every summer. Did someone ask Ursula what the plan is?

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Padraig O'Brien
    Favourite Padraig O'Brien
    Report
    Aug 14th 2024, 12:32 PM

    @ Thesaltyurchin and David Jordan
    Are ye too young to have seen Monty Python?

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds