New figures from the Central Statistiscs Office show that the Government deficit stood at €1 billion - or 0.4% of GDP - in 2017.
This marked an improvement on the 2016 deficit of €1.4 billion - 0.5% of GDP.
During 2017, Government revenues increased by 3.9% to €76.5 billion while government expenditures rose by 3.3% to €77.6 billion.
Today's CSO figures show that the main driver of the increase in government revenues was a 5.3% increase in taxes of €2.8 billion.
There were also a 5% increase in revenues from social contributions, while sales of goods and services grew by 1.5%.
But capital transfers decreased markedly between 2016 and 2017, falling by 57%.
Meanwhile, government expenditures rose by €2.5 billion between 2016 and 2017 with increases of €1.2 billion (6.4%) in civil servants' wages and pay, €0.6 billion (2.2%) in social benefits and €0.3 billion (3.6%) in use of goods and services.
The CSO also said that debt services costs, or interest, decreased by €0.4 billion, 5.8%, in 2017.
Figures from the CSO today also showed that the Ggovernment recorded a deficit of €1.5 billion, or 2% of quarterly GDP, in the first three months of this year.
Government revenue amounted to €17.8 billion, up from €17.4 billion the same time last year, mainly due to higher taxes and social contributions, which rose by 3.7%).
The CSO said that government expenditure during the first quarter of 2018 was €19.3 billion, up 3.5% on the same time last year.
