DUBLIN: Ireland’s national debt is reported to be soaring. According to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the national debt as of September 2020 was €227.5 billion. This is about 62 per cent of GDP.
The CSO also noted that Ireland had a deficit of €16.9 billion in the first nine months of last year. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, government spending and tax revenue declined, pushing the national deficit to 6.2% during the period. The deficit was 0.7% in the same period in 2019. At the same time, revenue for the period was only €58.7 billion. According to the CSO, this is 5.1% lower than in 2019.
This decline was accelerated as indirect taxes fell by 15.7% in Ireland following the COVID crisis. Government revenue fell 7.2% to €19.6 billion in the third quarter from July to September last year. It was one per cent lower than the second quarter.
At the same time, the PUP fell to €1.1 billion from €2.5 billion in the previous quarter. At the same time, payments for the provisional wage subsidy scheme / employment wage subsidy scheme in the second quarter stood at €1.7 billion. By the third quarter, it had fallen to €1.3 billion.
CSO estimates that tax revenue fell by €2.2 billion (4.9%) in the third quarter of 2020. The main reason for this is the reduction of €3.3 billion in indirect taxes. However, the impact was mitigated by an increase of €1.1 billion in direct taxes, including income tax and corporation tax, over the same period.
At the same time, government spending in the first nine months of 2020 rose to €11.8 billion. This is an increase of 18.5% over the same period in 2019. According to CSO figures, the surge in government spending comes at a time when revenue is down €3.1 billion (5.1%).
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