The Department of Finance has published new figures today showing the Government's deficit is well below the projected target.
Their white paper reveals that if no new measures are introduced in the budget, overspending will fall to 2.4 per cent next year – beating the EU's deficit target of 3 per cent.
This means the Finance Minister will have up to 900 million euro to play with, as he prepares to announce Budget 2015 this Tuesday.
Elsewhere, the figures show that the State will still be spending more than it earns next year, with receipts totalling 47 billion and expenditure at over 52 billion – putting the exchequer deficit at over 5 billion euro.
But officials forecast that revenue from income tax will be up 1.3 billion euro, as more people go back to work, but stamp duty will fall as the pension levy is lowered.
