RTE news : Surplus of €2.2 billion in public finances last month

17 comments
  1. We should probably exclude corporation tax from our primary budget calculations and treat it as a windfall.

  2. that’ll be the fuel increase/tax/vat on that then.

    Hopefully when fuel hits 2 euro in a few months we’ll be able to increase the Surplus to 3 billion.

    Winning!!!!!!!!!

  3. Right lets siphon off a few million and give it to LUAS so that they can carry out a hiring process for our police force and employ actual people who aren’t terrified of their own shadow as Gardai.

    Personally I’d like to see LUAS security patrolling our streets and not a 5’1 Eimear munching on Tayto crisps in an oversized Garda jacket

  4. Assuming they budgeted for last month for a worse case scenario Covid lockdown (like January 2021), with money factored in for additional PUP, EWSS etc. Thankfully that didn’t materialise, so less money on Covid supports plus tax revenue in excess of expectations. Since they’ve been borrowing to fund the Covid supports since 2020, this isn’t likely to be spare change floating around (i.e. the unspent budget may be composed of debt).

    That said, you’d feel that if they have the access to this kind of capital for Covid supports, why on earth haven’t they addressed the myriad social and infrastructure issues in this country sooner. Even if they didn’t have the same ease of access to debt, we were still AA or triple A rated as borrowers pre-Covid. Sure it has to be paid back sometime, but we’re also paying a fortune on an ongoing basis for sticking plasters (like HAP, renting private temporary accommodation for homeless, 25-year leases for homes to local authorities, to name just a few on the housing side).

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