So far, deficit of nearly 3 billion and stamp duty returns have fallen versus 2006. More to follow 
Exchequer returns. I wonder when they last ran a deficit?
finance.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=4983&CatID=5&StartDate=1+January+2007&m=f
And look where the shortfalls were.
Stamp Duty, VAT, customs & excise.
The property market and consumer spending.
Plus the effects of the massive splurge on government spending in the run up to the election. 2002 all over again, except this time with a collapsing housing market on top.
They often run a deficit and pull it back when the self employed tax comes in in November or so.
Wait till November 2008 and all the laid off builders for a real shocker though/
Come on guys. It’s like I’m reading a different report here.
Stamp duty is down alright. 2,345,358,000 in 2006 to 2,295,336,000 in 2007. That’s only a 2.13% drop. Small when you consider the cliff that the property market has fallen off.
VAT is up. 8,813,927,000 in 2006 to 9,769,908,000. That’s a respectable 10.85% increase.
Customs and excise are up slightly at 5.78% and 3.74% respectively.
Corporation Tax seems to have fallen off a cliff. 2,516,223,000 in 2006 to 1,862,915,000 in 2007. Down 25.96%
Most of the deficit would seem to be in the huge increase in Department expenditure. Up from 23,473,090,000 (23.5 billion) in 2006 to 28,113,716,000 (28 billion) in 2007. A whopping 19.77% increase.
Here’s the breakdown
Agriculture & Food. 404189 745305 84.4
Arts, Sport & Tourism 300486 343868 14.44
Communications, Marine & Natural Resources… 151442 184404 21.77
Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs. 230623 272190 18.02
Defence… 562806 617794 9.77
Education & Science. 4758557 5280936 10.98
Enterprise, Trade & Employment… 748784 819465 9.44
Environment, Heritage & Local Government. 1105988 1662563 50.32
Finance Group. 731025 820796 12.28
Foreign Affairs. 490223 610979 24.63
Health & Children 6874899 8250492 20.01
Justice Group… 1329131 1554665 16.97
Social & Family Affairs . 4678293 5340319 14.15
Taoiseach’s Group (incl Legal Votes)… 127010 116783 -8.05
Transport… 979634 1493157 52.42
The big prob seems to be the huge increase in expenditure across the board. In some cases this is very much warranted. Transport and Health for example. Given our capital investment needs we should be running a deficit.
You’re right. Thus far, the problem, and it is a problem, is only on the expenditure side (we’ll have to wait for 2008 for income problems).
Granted, but this time last year there was a surplus of 203 million. That has to count for something.
Yes, but last year was an exceptional year and receipts were way ahead of target this time last year so it is difficult to compare the two especially given all the money that they gave away in the budget.
Unless i heard it wrong, it mentioned on Rte news yesterday(six-one) that nearly all the jobs that were created in Q2 were part-time and there was an actual decline in full-time employment, was this what George Lee had said exactly?
Got the impression that the figures on the job front are being masked by VI as fulltime jobs than what they really are, part-time.
thats how I heard it too, lots of the jobs were parttime. Lots of 20 hours a week jobs @~8€/PH will hardly keep the bubble inflated.
Ireland has been running a deficit for many years . In econmic terms its called a structural deficit .
German bankers have been waving a red flag about the structural deficit we were running for a decade , they were laughed off going back to the days of McCreevy.
If you truly believe we have been running surpluses all these years and dont know the difference between a budget surplus and a structural deficit then to be perfectly blunt about it you can add your name to the list of people who have landed Ireland in its current sorry state. It really is that simple.
I beg your pardon?
Yeah Id be interested in the answer to this, I need to be enlightened. That is as an active tax payer with no personal debt, a very small mortgage with less that the price of a small car outstanding. Id love to know just how the f*** I am to blame for a generation of rampant gombeenism? 
interesting to see our European friends taking an interest after last week’s, ahem, ‘events’
Why, how do you do.
Maybe you should just hang a little and get the vibe of this place and its inhabitants before your next post. 
Well…don’t leave me in the dark then - what is the difference between a budget surplus and a structural deficit?
Let’s see how he answers this.
Guess it depends on how you define the economic cycle - ireland has perhaps been benefiting from an unusually long positive economic cycle, so perhaps all those recent surpluses were really just cyclical.
On the other hand, private sector ireland has been borrowing like stupid, and that’s probably made the capital account a bit ‘interesting’.
Ohh the exictement is getting th better of me. I’m giggling like a school girl.
This is going to be funny
What happened to Geckko’s London rumour mill thread?