Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 30 November 2023
Public Accounts Committee
Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Finance Accounts 2022
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 1 – Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2022
Chapter 2 – Reporting Ireland’s EU Transactions
Chapter 24 – Performance of the Ireland Apple Escrow Fund
Chapter 25 – Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
9:30 am
Mr. John McCarthy:
The Chairman is correct. The increase was actually not that large. It was about €5 billion or €6 billion; I will get the Chairman the exact figure in a moment. That might sound surprising because, as Mr. Hogan said, there was a lot of expenditure, but we had a good Covid, if I can use that horrible expression, because a number of pandemic-proof sectors did really well. We were producing the vaccines and the antiviral drugs in Ireland, and everybody went online, so ICT profitability was strong. Corporation taxes essentially doubled between the year before the pandemic and 2022 and that kind of offset a lot of the expenditure Mr. Hogan was talking about.
I will get the Cathaoirleach the exact figure for the increase, but it was €4 billion to €5 billion or in that ballpark. I will come back in a minute.