New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that €14.8 billion of additional direct costs were associated with the range of Covid-19 measures introduced by the Government since March 2020.
These include the fiscal support measures to expand the capacity of the healthcare sector, supporting household incomes through the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and providing supports to businesses during the periods of public health restrictions through the use of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.
In total this amounted to about 4% of GDP or 7.2% of GNI* in 2020, the CSO said.
The CSO said the deficit of €18.4 billion for 2020 is a €20.2 billion deterioration compared with the surplus of €1.8 billion in 2019 and clearly highlighted the effect Covid-19 measures had on government finances.
Today's figures show that general government revenue was €83.6 billion in 2020, down 5.1% on 2019.
This includes a decrease in indirect taxes of €3.3 billion, which reflected lower VAT receipts and the impact of the commercial rates waiver.
Expenditure last year stood at €102 billion, significant 18.3% increase on 2019.
The CSO said the level of government borrowing rose by almost €14 billion to €217.9 billion last year.
However it noted that the debt to GDP ratio remained below the Stability and Growth Pact threshold of 60% due to the performance of GDP during the year.
