Tax receipts for the first seven months of the year remain ahead of government estimates and are significantly up on last year's numbers according to the latest Exchequer returns.
A total of €24.5 billion has been collected to the end of July an increase of 9.7% on the same period last year and 3.8% ahead of the forecasts in last October's Budget.
Of the main three tax categories Income tax receipts were slightly lower than expected during the month. VAT and Corporation Tax were both ahead of target.
The Exchequer deficit, which reflects the gap between the costs of running central government including debt servicing costs and the tax income received, was €648m in July compared to €5.2 billion last year.
The cost of making interest payments on the national debt was €126m at the end of July than at the same point in 2014. A statement from the Department of Finance alongside the Exchequer returns noted that this was largely due to the early repayment of IMF debts which carried a higher interest rate than the money borrowed to pay them back.
