Exchequer figures for the first quarter of this year show a surplus of €608m, compared with a surplus of €1,457m for the same period in 2001.
Tax receipts for the first three months of the year are down 2.8% on the same period last year, at €6,217m. This compares with a Budget target for an increase of 8.6% for 2002 as a whole.
Income tax receipts were down 3.8%, compared with a target of a 1.1% increase. VAT receipts climbed 3.8%, well below an 11% target, while excise revenue growth was ahead of target at 14.4%. Corporation tax receipts are down over 48%. Officials described the fall in income tax receipts as disappointing.
Total receipts were up, however, because of a transfer of €635m from the Social Insurance Fund and a payment of €250m from the issue of coins.
Current spending is running 16.5% ahead of Q1 last year at €5,326m, though the year-on-year rate of growth has slowed from 22% in January.
'The general expectation is that the economy is on the road to recovery and that this should be reflected in tax revenues over the remainder of the year,' said Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy.
He added that a number of measures - such as changes in VAT and Corporation Tax - had yet to be reflected in extra tax revenue.
During a press briefing today, Department of Finance officials said they had underestimated the cost of income tax changes in the 2000 and 2001 budgets.
This may help explain the fall-off in income tax receipts in the past couple of years. They put these figures at €317m in 2000 and €203m in the short 2001 tax year.
The officials said there were 76,000 more people working in the economy during this period and that this affected the cost of tax changes.
Employers' organmisation IBEC says the figures show little sign of a recovery in the public finances, with spending running at twice the projected rate of growth for this year.
It added that the implications for competitiveness if this trend continued were grave.
