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Minister for Finance Michael Noonan. (file photo) Niall Carson/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Exchequer returns show €2.9 billion deficit due, in part, to payment to the ESM

Spending at the Department of Social Protection was more than expected, whereas the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation continues to underspend.

TAX REVENUES TO the end of October totalled €28.35 billion, according to the latest exchequer returns figures as released by the Department of Finance.

This amounted to €1,680 million, or 6.3 per cent, more than the same period in 2011.

While yields from VAT, income tax and corporation tax continue to surpass expectations for the year-to-date, corporation tax and income tax were down in October.

The take from excise duty was down for the fourth month in a row.

Commenting on today’s figures, Peter Value from Grant Thornton said:

The Exchequer figures for October are probably the weakest set of figures so far this year. It is typically a quiet month for tax receipts with November being a far more important month in terms of both income tax and corporation tax receipts.
However if the trend observed in October continues through to November this is going to have significant consequences for the December budget.

In figures

VAT was €106 million, or 1.3 per cent, ahead of target at the end of October.

Income tax take was €69 million, or 0.6 per cent, ahead of profile, with even greater returns expected in November due to the filing of tax returns by those who are self-employed.

The Department of Finance projects close to €2.5 billion in income tax being taken in this month as a result.

Despite corporation tax being €26 million ahead of profile in October, or one per cent, it is down 2.5 per cent year-on-year when adjusted.

Like income tax, November is projected as being a big month for corporation tax take, with close to €1.2 billion, or 30 per cent,  expected in November.

Excise duty is now €156 million, or 4.1 per cent, behind its projected target.

Stamp duty, capital gains tax, capital acquisitions tax and customs were slightly up at the end of October.

Expenditure

More is still being spent by Government than had been estimated. At the end of October, it was €424 million, or 1.2 per cent more than expected.

This was largely caused by overspends in the Department of Social Protection, which had a PSRI shortfall of €289 million.

The Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport also overspent, due to it making €36 million available to the National Transport Authority (NTA).

With the shortfall in PRSI taken out of the equation, the total overrun is €135 million.

Capital expenditure to the end of October was €336 million, or 14.2 per cent, below expectations, due in large part to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

Servicing the debt

The cost of servicing the country’s debt was €6,180 million at the end of October, which was €35 million (0.6 per cent) less than the revised figures which were published by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) today.

While the year-on-year costs of servicing the debt are up almost €2.5 billion, this has been explained by Government as being due to having made the Sinking Fund payment in March of this year when it had been made in November of 2011, and also by the use of €548 million from the Capital Services Redemption Account (CSRA), which was used for debt servicing purposes in the first 10 months of 2011.

With these two factors taken into account, debt servicing costs are up €1.3 billion (as opposed to €2.6 billion) when compared on a like-for-like basis with the first 10 months of 2011.

Exchequer balance

Exchequer deficit at the end of October 2012 was €14,072 million compared to €22,176 million for the same period last year. This drop is due to the settlement of the 2012 IBRC Promissory Note payment with a government bond, in addition to the fact that the banking recapitalisation payments of 2011 have not been repeated in 2012.

The Exchequer recorded a deficit in October of €2.9 billion. Contributing to this total was €1.3 billion of debt interest expenditure and a €0.5 billion payment to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Read: Exchequer returns show tax take up but deficit at over €11bn >

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55 Comments
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    Mute @mdmak33
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    May 2nd 2018, 12:58 PM

    The public have lost trust in this goverment.

    341
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    Mute Shane Fleming
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:56 PM

    @@mdmak33: It’s more the public have lost trust in the HSE. Ministers are mere puppets controlled by the secretaries generals.

    113
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    Mute Stephen Adam
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:00 PM

    @Shane Fleming: The public haven’t lost trust in anything. Just look at the polls – FGLeo riding high still. The public don’t care about this. Not really.

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    Mute Paul Fahey
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:26 PM

    @Stephen Adam: riding high? They are in early 30’s, which means over two thirds have no intention of voting for them.

    52
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    Mute Stephen Adam
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:28 PM

    @Paul Fahey: given the fractured nature of our politics they’re still the most popular party in the country. LV is the most popular leader since Bertie.

    FFFG have probably 50% of the vote. So nothing changes. Homelessness house prices Garda corruption now this – won’t make a difference.

    23
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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    May 2nd 2018, 3:31 PM

    @@mdmak33: What is there to trust about a corrupt golden circle where they all look out for each other and to hell with everyone else.
    The Times are running a story today that tells us Tony O’Brien joined an American company as a board member on a lucrative contract. The chairman of the compant has fundraised for Leo and is chairman of the board of Ireland East Hospital, the countries largest hospital group and the Mater hospital.
    There’s conflicts of interest written all over this corrupt government and their cronies.

    50
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    Mute Stephen Adam
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    May 2nd 2018, 12:58 PM

    Ah sure look – won’t the tax payer foot the bill? Sure it’s grand.

    When do we see some sackings? Some pensions stripped? Some more resignations?

    When is there actual accountability for the appalling negligence and ass covering?

    When the tax payer has to pay out someone’s head has to roll.

    254
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    Mute Leroy
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:13 PM

    @Stephen Adam: Its easy spending somebody’s else money you see

    114
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    Mute Tom Purcell
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:56 PM

    @Stephen Adam: One word answers all your questions: “Never!”

    39
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    Mute wattsed
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:15 PM

    Wait, he doesn’t know the full numbers – but the reassessments will be completed by the end of May. How was that time frame therefore arrived at ?
    Has there not been enough incompetence under FG, now and in the past, for FF to withdraw support and revisit who we want to represent this country, whoever that may be. What else is going on that we haven’t been given transparency on ?

    112
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    Mute David Knight
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:40 PM

    So after all the hand-wringing and crocodile tears, the fake apologies and the firm promises of action, (as opposed to actual action), they are now saying they still don’t know the full facts. What an admission! It’s clear that the chain of command is simply not working within our public services. Some of the blame may lie with operating in a highly unionised environment, where the civil servants are so cocooned from reality, that they just don’t give a damn, and there is no failing that can ever have any impact on their situation. But what is stopping a minister from breaking the chain of command and going to the coalface and get his answers for himself? What is stopping the government from creating new legislation that brings in accountability? What’s to stop a minister from introducing criminal negligence and charging people found to be accountable, where loss of life is proven?

    82
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    Mute Irish Bob
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:21 PM

    Leo wants time !!! this case is going on since 2011, 7 years, he was a health minister and now Taoiseach .. And if Leo and Simon did not know ( i dont believe them ) then they should resign for not knowing abou State going to war with that poor woman for the last 7 years

    77
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    Mute Shane O Malley
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:06 PM

    prime ministers,heads of departments,ministers, td’s, garda commissioners, does not matter who you are on Irish gov payroll, does not matter how Incompetent, does not matter how much damage inflicted on innocent people, here is your pension & lump sum off you pop,,,GROSS

    161
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    Mute Liam McGowan
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    May 2nd 2018, 10:17 PM

    @Shane O Malley: Agreed Shane. Same with the bankers, auditors and those who inflicted real hardship, even death on the general public. The elite never pay.

    8
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    Mute Eugene Walsh
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:04 PM

    This country is hazardous. If it’s not the cops , crap road infrastructure, shocking health service…it’s the governments complete incomoetency.

    The government runs this state and is responsible for it’s people considering that tax they collect .

    133
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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:51 PM

    Redress isn’t much to those that have died, and not a lot of good to those women whose lives are shortened by government incompetence and couldn’t care less until caught attitude.

    71
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    Mute Irish Bob
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:49 PM

    Copied from Journal.ie .. Proves Leo knew more

    http://www.thejournal.ie/varadkar-cervicalcheck-3988626-May2018/#comment-7169130

    Dara O’Brien
    4y
    7hours ago

    @gregory: Dail debate is here if you want to read it – from 2008, Leo is a TD since 2007 and as a doctor, he would have been well aware of this debate.

    “The method of screening done by Quest Diagnostics is not up to the same standard as the public labs in Ireland — this means that more Irish women will die” Sinn Féin’s, Aengus Ó Snodaigh warned the Dáil on May 29, 2008.

    “Quest has won the tender to analyse 300,000 Irish smear tests a year, but consultant pathologists from the Coombe Women’s Hospital, St. James’s Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital in Dublin, and University College Hospital in Galway stated that missed cases would arise because the diagnostic rate of pre-cancerous cells at Quest Diagnostics in the US is 30% less than that of Irish laboratories.

    This concern has been echoed by the Irish Association for Clinical Cytology, IACC, which has expressed its disquiet at the decision to award the contract for cervical screening services to Quest, thereby excluding Irish laboratories. The IACC says this decision will have serious implications for the long-term quality of the cervical screening programme”

    He continued

    “The Irish Association for Clinical Cytology states that Irish laboratories provide a quality screening service as evidenced by comparison of incidence and mortality rates to other European countries…

    There is significant concern that testing for this screening programme has been placed in the hands of a multinational giant that has been convicted of fraud in the US…Janette Byrne of the Patients Together campaigning group, said: “We would definitely question why public money is being given to a company that has been investigated for acting fraudulently in another country.”

    It seems the Minister for Health and Children would rather listen to corporate executives in the private health business than to health experts and patients in Ireland. Not only are our health services being privatised, but jobs and services are being exported. Trained and trainee laboratory technicians in Ireland are being written off by this decision and many will have to emigrate to find work in the future”.

    He added:

    “During questions on the issue of the cervical cancer screening programme last October, my colleague, Deputy Ó Caolain, asked the Minister if it was preferable that the testing labs should be here. The Minister replied: “Yes, ideally we must have our own laboratory facilities in Ireland.” This does not seem to be the case now.

    I have been contacted by a medical scientist, a constituent of mine, who has raised her concern at the outsourcing to Quest Diagnostics…The HSE has a sorry history with its privatisation agenda and she does not want to see it happening with laboratory services. She concluded by stating: “As a woman and mother of two daughters I am horrified to think that the standards of screening cervical smears are going to be reduced unnecessarily and put us at risk.”

    The Minister must listen to such expert voices — those involved in the service, those working in the service and the patients who have to use the service”.

    http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail2008052900007?opendocument

    37
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    Mute Tom Purcell
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:09 PM

    The government needs to do something no government since the formation of the state has ever done – start sacking the [thousands of] under performing civil/public servants. They need to stand up to the vested interests (includnig the unions) and serve the people of Ireland, not just the select few.

    Can our politicians – regardless of their loyalties – not see that the public is sick and tired of one branch after another of the civil/pubic service failing, being corrupt, wallowing in incompetence, holding the public to ransom…. a number of senior people need to go.

    46
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    Mute Stephen Adam
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:19 PM

    @Tom Purcell: If the Public were sick and tired of it FG would be getting hammered in the polls and so would FF.

    They’re not. The public don’t care. Reform and sacking corrupt or negligent civil servants simply isn’t something the public give a hoot about.

    14
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    Mute Irish Bob
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:24 PM

    @Stephen Adam: Polls ? who does these polls and we never seem to get a breakdown of how many are polled etc. like the useless Claire Byrne polls of 1000 people which is a very small percentage of the population.
    Agree that FF have alot to answer for proping up this shower, they should pull down this Goverment and let the people of Ireland choose

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    Mute Stephen Adam
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:38 PM

    @Irish Bob: so it’s your position bob that the polls are wrong? And that actually – who? Sinn Fein? Are actually ahead?

    I loath FFFGLab – the scandals and mismanagement are a disgrace. But let’s be realistic. The majority of the country will return these parties to office.

    10
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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    May 2nd 2018, 3:19 PM

    @Stephen Adam: Try polling women. Not just “suitable” candidates.

    9
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    Mute Stephen Adam
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    May 2nd 2018, 3:27 PM

    @Dave Doyle: I’m not sure what that means Dave. Are you suggesting the polls are doctored? If that were true we wouldn’t have had decades of FFFG mismanagement. But we have.

    4
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    Mute Kirk Loco
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    May 2nd 2018, 6:18 PM

    @Stephen Adam: You mean to tell me you actually believe the polls are managed accordingly without any doctoring of numbers?

    You leave that comment under a news story about more shameful scandal in Ireland?

    The politicians of this state, the judicial system, law enforcement and medical services are all corrupt to the core and a disgrace!

    6
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    Mute Stephen Adam
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    May 2nd 2018, 8:00 PM

    @Kirk Loco: I believe information which supports the facts. When the polls say FF FG have 50% of the vote and they also have 50% of the Dail – and we’ve been electing them for a century – well yes I believe the polls.

    If the polls said the social democrats and Renua were going to take 50% or the next Dail I wouldn’t believe them.

    1
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    Mute Trevor Hayden
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    May 2nd 2018, 1:47 PM

    Will FG handle it as well as the church redress?
    I wouldn’t hold my breath.
    Fg or FF couldn’t care less.
    No faith in either.

    56
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    Mute Anthony Gallagher
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:30 PM

    Apologies and a redress scheme ,anything from fanning the flames of public discontent .varadkar is up to his neck in this ,he has been flip flopping through this already tired administration .he is the same old plastic politician we have become accustomed to in ireland ,he will i presume cap his tenure off by offering another big goodie bag at the next election .Whatever happened to the great democratic revolution ,gombeens

    30
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    Mute SilentFugitive
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    May 2nd 2018, 3:42 PM

    @Anthony Gallagher: Look at the photo, even now in this dark dank place Irish politics finds itself in – he is thinking about image, surrounding himself with women. Two to the left and two to the front. It’s all about presenting the right image and the optics have to be positive. That speaks volumes to me. Bigger shame on the pawn TDs for allowing themselves to be used in that regard.

    26
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    Mute Anthony Gallagher
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    May 2nd 2018, 4:31 PM

    @SilentFugitive: agree ,i think if leo had any real leadership qualities he would be standing or sitting on the front row .he looks very much like he is being protected .when your in command command and to me that is taking pole position .leo would appear to have a lot of self doubt .he is being paid a very handsome salary its time he proved to the country he is worth it .

    13
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    Mute AJ
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    May 2nd 2018, 2:10 PM

    What did you know slimeball???

    17
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    Mute Declan Carr
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    May 2nd 2018, 3:34 PM

    Say nothing we just might get through this. Don’t mention money, only the only the cost to go back and have it done. Don’t forget to say we were never told or I cant remember.

    16
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    Mute Kevin Slater
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    May 2nd 2018, 5:31 PM

    Rather than paying off the women, maybe the former minister for health might instigate a proper inquiry?

    11
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    Mute francis dowling
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    May 2nd 2018, 8:35 PM

    If it wasn’t for the courageous Vicky phelan highlighting the way she was horribly treated by the state it would of been business as usual for Leo and his incompetent government what the people don’t know won’t hurt them, shame on you Leo

    9
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    Mute ForeverFeel1ng
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    May 2nd 2018, 11:38 PM

    Too many Administrators in the HSE. There needs to be a purge. Plain and Simple.

    4
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    Mute Declan
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    May 2nd 2018, 8:13 PM

    What a disgustingly hollow and self serving Bass turd this clown is, people have died for Christ’s sake, what where the reasons behind these Laboratories getting this work? Who organized the deal? Was this companies numerous class actions considered during the tender process? Redress ? That won’t bring people back, money hasn’t and never will clean up the middle management/civil servant cesspool that is the HSE?! This horribly inexperienced unelected leader of the Irish people has been a Doctor and Minister for health!? I’m guessing this clown became a politician to circumvent his obvious hippocratic oath failings. Ethical Pledges and behaviours!? Do yourselves a favour don’t associate this criminal with either and don’t look in the Dail for them either. Disgusting liar.

    10
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    Mute Michael Donovan
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    May 3rd 2018, 9:35 PM

    How about a redress scheme for those whom we’re held in cervitude in all of Ireland’s “Holly Labour Camp’s” concidering you get nothing for LPT these day’s love to see the council’s pay this over as componsation,,,for the brutality shown by state and religouse orders.

    1
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