Tax clue to waning Celtic Tiger boom
The deterioration in the health of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economic boom was highlighted tonight in new figures from the Government’s Finance Department.
The exchequer statement for last month showed up a total tax take 6% down on January last year.
The returns also reported that the amount spent on the day-to-day running of government departments was 22% up on the same time a year ago.
A surplus of 382 million euro was recorded in January, but that was more than three times lower that the figure for the same period in 2001, which came to more than 1.2 billion euro.
One of the biggest reverses was in the amount gained from income tax, which went down by 5%, even though over the 12 months the number of people in work increased and wages grew in most sectors of the economy.
There was also little evidence of a big spending spree ahead of the start-of-the-year introduction in Ireland of the euro common currency, despite reports to the contrary in the days between Christmas and the New Year from retailers in central Dublin.
And a rise of only 2% in Value Added Tax - a figure lower than average inflation rate in the past 12 months - also suggested that per-capita spending by consumers was well down in comparison with the same period last year.
