![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1754647931518-c07d65db-55b5-463e-ae51-976300c5837e.jpeg\"\/)
Iran\u2019s cyber-attacks on Irish-based companies and the ongoing impact of conflict in the Middle East<\/p>\nGovernment ministers will meet the agency responsible for the Republic\u2019s strategic oil reserves on Wednesday as the war in Iran poses an ongoing risk to energy supplies.<\/p>\n
Oil prices surged to around $115 a-barrel after US president Donald Trump vowed to wipe out Iran if it did not meet a Tuesday deadline on talks to end the war and re-open the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.<\/p>\n
The Government will meet the National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA) on Wednesday to assess the risks to the Republic\u2019s energy security, Minister for Finance Simon Harris confirmed.<\/p>\n
Imported oil and gas account for around 90 per cent of Irish energy needs, exposing businesses and households to costs arising from the destruction of infrastructure in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The NORA has reserves enough to meet 90 days\u2019 demand for petrol, diesel, heating oil and other fuels, according to Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has done scenario planning and we will have a chance tomorrow to interrogate that,\u201d the minister added.<\/p>\n
The Government is not ruling out aid similar to the \u20ac200 a-month energy credits given to households to ease the impact of the soaring energy prices that followed Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
However, any such aid this time will have to \u201ctemporary, sustainable and affordable\u201d, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform cautioned. <\/p>\n
The ministers were speaking after figures showed taxes on workers and consumers boosted Government finances in the first three months of the year, but contributions to pension and infrastructure funds left it with a \u20ac200 million deficit.<\/p>\n
Government revenues hit \u20ac29.4 billion in the three months to the end of March, aided by almost \u20ac9 billion income tax collected from workers, according to exchequer returns published on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s cyber-attacks on Irish-based companies and the ongoing impact of conflict in the Middle East<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a year on since Donald Trump\u2019s Liberation Day tariffs and host Ciar\u00e1n Hancock is joined in studio by Aidan Meagher, EY partner and co-head of the geopolitical strategy team; to hear about the impact this has had on Irish exporters and global trade.They also chat about the current market turmoil and an increasing level of cyber-attack on the operations of American companies in Ireland by Iranian interests.In the second half of this week\u2019s Inside Business, Ciar\u00e1n speaks to Declan Bolger, the chief executive of the Irish Life group, one of the biggest asset managers in the country.Declan gives his thoughts on the State\u2019s new auto enrolment pension scheme, the rising costs of health insurance premiums, and the impact of AI on his sector.He also explains why Simon Harris\u2019s plan to introduce a tax-friendly savings and investment scheme will be an\u00a0\u201cabsolute failure\u201d if only viewed for the wealthy.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spending hit \u20ac29.6 billion, which included \u20ac1.6 billion transferred to the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund.<\/p>\n
The Government established both funds in 2024 to provide for future demands on State finances, including pensions, and environmental and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the returns, Harris argued that they showed that the Republic faced the crisis sparked by the war in the Middle East with a strong economy and public finances.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do approach this better prepared than in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cBut no government can fully shield its people from something of this magnitude\u201d.<\/p>\n
The returns, detailing Government income and spending in the first quarter of the year, show that the State collected \u20ac22.6 billion from taxpayers, \u20ac700 million or 3.4 per cent more than during the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n
Non-tax revenue of \u20ac6.8 billion increased this to \u20ac29.4 billion, the returns show.<\/p>\n
Workers paid \u20ac8.7 billion in income tax in the first three months of 2026, \u20ac500 million or 6.1 per cent more than during the same quarter last year.<\/p>\n
VAT, paid by consumers on goods and services that they buy, reached \u20ac8 billion in the first quarter, \u20ac400 million or 5.3 per cent more than in the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n
Excise duties dipped \u20ac18 million to \u20ac1.5 billion in the first three months of the year. Government cut excise on diesel and petrol in response to the crisis, but the returns do not state if this had any impact by the end of last month.<\/p>\n
Corporation tax paid by companies on their profits fell \u20ac100 million to \u20ac2.9 billion in the first three months of the year from \u20ac3 billion during the comparable period in 2025.<\/p>\n
Those figures do not include almost \u20ac1.8 billion paid by iPhone maker Apple in the first quarter of 2025 following an EU court ruling requiring it to pay \u20ac14 billion to the Irish Revenue.<\/p>\n
These taxes include duties paid on motor fuel, whose prices have risen sharply since the US and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.<\/p>\n
Total spending of \u20ac29.6 billion included \u20ac19 billion on day-to-day funding of Government departments, and \u20ac2.7 billion on capital spending, which includes State-financed infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Government ministers will meet the agency responsible for the Republic\u2019s strategic oil reserves on Wednesday as the war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1398,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-386727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-department-of-finance","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}