Ireland, land of no private banks

[evilsoup]

Ha, fair enough.

[OneEyedTeddyMcGrew]

News just in. The Exchequer released it's post-March report yesterday, and it dosen't make for pretty viewing. I'll post my comments on it when I get back from work tonight, but here's the raw data for the moment. Read it and weep.

Tax Revenue

· Tax revenues at end-March amounted to €7,506 million. This was €270 million or 3.7% above the same period in 2010. Year-on-year increases in income tax – primarily due to the introduction of the Universal Social Charge (USC) and other Budget 2011 measures – corporation tax and excise duties offset a 3.3% year-on-year decline in VAT receipts.

· Tax revenues were €136 million behind profile at end-March, a very minor deterioration on the position at end-February when taxes were €128 million down on target.

· The shortfall compared to profile at end March is accounted for by weaker than expected performances from income tax and VAT, the two most significant tax-heads in terms of collection, which were €125 million and €179 million below their respective targets. Excise duties and corporation tax outperformed their targets by €60 million and €78 million respectively, but the first quarter of the year is not a significant period for corporation tax.

· PAYE receipts in the first three months of the year amounted to just over €2 billion, a ½% above the same period in 2010. PAYE receipts show the impact of the income tax measures introduced in Budget 2011 but as they do not include receipts from the USC, they allow for a comparable year-on-year analysis to be made.

Voted Expenditure

· Total net voted expenditure at end-March, at €10,927 million, was €188 million or 1.7% up year-on-year. Net voted current spending was up €616 million or 6.3% whereas net voted capital expenditure was €428 million or 41.9% down year-on-year. The year-on-year comparison for net voted current spending is impacted upon by the reclassification of health levy receipts to form part of the new USC. This has the effect of increasing net voted current expenditure.

· Total net voted expenditure was €255 million or 2.3% below target. Net voted current expenditure was €176 million or 1.7% behind profile. The main underspend was on the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Vote, due to the earlier than expected payment of receipts from the EU.

· Net voted capital expenditure was €79 million or 11.7% down on profile at the end of March, primarily due to the HSE being €21 million behind profile.

Debt Servicing

· Exchequer debt servicing costs in the first quarter, at €848 million were up €86 million year-on-year. In addition, a further €577 million from the Capital Services Redemption Account (CSRA) was used to fund debt servicing costs in the first quarter. The use of the CSRA in this way was outlined at Budget time. The full debt service cash cost (including CSRA) was therefore €1,425 million, some €663 million above the figure at end-March 2010, reflecting the servicing of the additional debt burden.

Overview

· The Exchequer deficit at end-March 2011 was €7,066 million compared to €3,942 million in the corresponding period in 2010.

· The €3.1 billion increase in the Exchequer deficit was primarily due to the €3,060 million in non-voted capital expenditure payments to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) which relate to the first 10% payments of the original principal sum of the Promissory Notes committed to these institutions in 2010.

Department of Finance Statement with the added bonus of Michael Noonan being an evasive little bitch.