From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform; Department of Finance
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Today’s exchequer returns show that for the first quarter of 2017 the exchequer recorded a deficit of €903 million which is a year on year improvement of €266 million when compared to the same period in 2016.
Taxes received in the first quarter of 2017 were behind the profile for the January/February/March period (-€282 million or -2.4%). However, on a more positive note, receipts are up on the same period of last year (+356 million or +3.2%) and this is symptomatic of our growing economy.
Gross voted expenditure on public services and infrastructure is down 0.9% on profile but up 5.5% year on year.
Speaking about the exchequer figures today Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan TD stated:
“The government continues to deliver on our programme for a Partnership Government commitments but in order to do that we need to continue to see a steady flow of revenues into the exchequer. We can see that receipts are up the same period in 2016 but are slightly behind expectations for the year to date.
"The Department of Finance will monitor that and the government will ensure that taxes can be set at an appropriate level and vital public services can be paid for. In fact, the draft Stability Programme Update is to be published next week and this will provide an update to the economic and fiscal forecasts.”
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, said:
“It is encouraging that spending is being managed by departments within their allocations, with overall expenditure on delivering public services below profile. Capital investment on infrastructure is slightly ahead of profile and well up on last year reflecting increased expenditure on the housing programme.”
ENDS