{"id":387618,"date":"2026-04-08T06:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/387618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:10:09","slug":"ireland-rakes-in-billions-in-tax-but-government-warns-of-what-could-hit-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/387618\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland rakes in billions in tax but Government warns of what could hit next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland collected \u20ac22.6bn in tax in early 2026, but the Government has warned that growing global tensions could still pose serious economic risks.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Different euro banknotes\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_GettyImages-1193657480.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Exchequer figures released on Tuesday show tax receipts of 22.6 billion were collected in the first three months of 2026\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Exchequer figures released on Tuesday show tax receipts of 22.6 billion were collected in the first three months of 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">There was a 3.4% increase in the <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/tax\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">amount of tax <\/a>collected by the Irish Government in the first quarter of this year, compared to 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Exchequer figures released on Tuesday show tax receipts of 22.6 billion were collected in the first three months of 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">There was a 6.1% rise in income tax to 8.7 billion euro, and a 5.3% increase in VAT receipts to eight billion euro.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">While an Exchequer deficit of 0.2 billion euro was recorded, the<a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/department-of-finance\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\"> Department of Finance\u2019s<\/a> 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<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">John McCarthy also described the increase in tax revenue as \u201csolid\u201d without being \u201cspectacular\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/irish-government\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Government spending<\/a> was up 1.6 billion euro compared with the same period last year, which Mr McCarthy said was driven by an increase in spending by the Department of Health and the Department of Social Protection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/simon-harris\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">The Tanaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> said these figures came at a \u201cgrave moment for the world\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">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<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">However, he said, Ireland is approaching \u201cthis moment of challenge better prepared than we have perhaps been in the past\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Mr Harris warned: \u201cIf this escalation continues, particularly involving critical energy infrastructure or key maritime routes the global economic consequences will be significant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\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<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cNo government can fully shield its people from a shock of that magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">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<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? <a aria-label=\"Making us your preferred source on GoogleLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 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To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply <a aria-label=\"click hereLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=irishmirror.ie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland collected \u20ac22.6bn in tax in early 2026, but the Government has warned that growing global tensions could&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1398,61,60,25097,43,70,5066],"class_list":{"0":"post-387618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-department-of-finance","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-irish-government","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-simon-harris","14":"tag-tax"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387618","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=387618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}