Fine Gael's European Parliament election candidates

Irish Economy: Michael Noonan, finance minister, today promised some tax cuts again in the next two budgets and he disclosed the April Exchequer Returns at a Fine Gael party launch of its campaign for the European and local elections.

More precisely, the minister promised income tax cuts but he did not promise that he would not offset them with stealth tax rises.

Noonan said government tax receipts for April are 9% higher than they were a year ago. He also said that the income tax take is about 6.5% higher.

In some other countries, pre-release of official data at a party gathering would create a firestorm and as politics was the theme, the headline data disclosed may not be as good as it seems.

In April 2013 the “big four” tax heads fell short of expectations were €58 million below target. The shortfall was primarily due to lower-than-expected DIRT receipts. Excise duties were €44m behind target and VAT fell short of target by €34m for the month of April. Corporation tax was the only major tax head ahead of profile, with an extra €21m received. However, it fell €88m year-on-year.

Noonan did not say today what the tax performance was compared with targets that were set in last October's budget, which had included rises in taxes such as DIRT.