There was a 3.4 per cent increase in the amount of tax collected by the Government in the first quarter of this year, compared to 2025.<\/p>\n
Exchequer figures released on Tuesday show tax receipts of \u20ac22.6 billion were collected in the first three months of 2026.<\/p>\n
There was a 6.1 per cent rise in income tax to \u20ac8.7 billion, and a 5.3 per cent increase in VAT receipts to \u20ac8 billion.<\/p>\n
While an Exchequer deficit of \u20ac0.2 billion was recorded, the Department of Finance\u2019s chief economist explained that was largely a \u201ctiming issue\u201d as a result of money being transferred to Ireland\u2019s long-term investment funds, the Future Ireland Fund (FIF) and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF).<\/p>\n
John McCarthy also described the increase in tax revenue as \u201csolid\u201d without being \u201cspectacular\u201d.<\/p>\n
Government spending was up \u20ac1.6 billion compared with the same period last year, which McCarthy said was driven by an increase in spending by the Department of Health and the Department of Social Protection.<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said these figures came at a \u201cgrave moment for the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cDecisions that will be made in the coming hours will have profound global economic impact in one direction or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he said, Ireland is approaching \u201cthis moment of challenge better prepared than we have perhaps been in the past\u201d.<\/p>\n
Harris warned: \u201cIf this escalation continues, particularly involving critical energy infrastructure or key maritime routes the global economic consequences will be significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we will face an economic challenge of varying scale, substance and severity, depending on the course of action that others decide in the hours ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo government can fully shield its people from a shock of that magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Irish Government is acting in a way that \u201cseeks to protect the most vulnerable and sustain our economic stability at this moment of challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a 3.4 per cent increase in the amount of tax collected by the Government in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-386910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386910","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=386910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}