Exchequer Figures continue to Plummet

They are €1billion lower than projected by Lenihan on October 14th in his budget. Already down on last years projections. The latest exchequer figures show a current deficit of 7.8 billion euro.

The Taoiseach told the Dail that the figures mean that even more spending cuts will have to be made.

The fact that these are the november figures is vital, it is a measure of the health of business and in self-assessed employees. For the celtic tiger years these sources of income kept the government afloat paying corporate profits and CGT on both our foreign and indigenous business.

The November period is a black-spot which could bring some businesses to their knees, cheques and cashflow are vital at this point in the year to cover tax, invoices and wages over and above the usual run of the mill costs – the fact is that the taxman gets paid first. The time for people to get action going on small business cashflow has approached and may soon leave – opposition have tried, banks are doing ad-hoc initiatives like RBS and Bank of Ireland but we have no coherent plan that boosts confidence as well as business ability to pay. That is what is needed. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have the money to do it either.