Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The most recent figures I have are the end of April figures which are for the first four months of the year. The revenues up to the end of April are up €145 million, 1.3%, year on year. They are broadly on profile. They are €7 million below the budget estimates on the basis of the monthly profiles.

There are variations within those figures. The year-on-year growth was anticipated because a number of once-off considerations arose in the early months of 2012. The PRSI-income tax reclassification, which we dealt with previously, inflated income tax last year by more than €200 million. There was a delayed payment of €251 million in corporation tax receipts from December 2011 into January 2012. The once-off nature of some large capital gains tax payments received in February 2012 also inflated the figures for last year. This explains the fairly small increase in 2013 over 2012.

On the expenditure side, net Voted expenditure for the end of April 2013 was €13.969 million. This represents a year-on-year decrease of €1.42 million, or 7.6%, and was some €262 million better than last year. The four largest Departments recorded year-on-year decreases.

On taxation, the April returns show that VAT was slightly behind, but overall tax is in line with profile. My officials have given me a note which shows there is some shortfall in excise, which seems to be a shortfall across the heads.