Economy beating predictions, says Noonan

EXCHEQUER figures to be published today will show that for the first four months of the year “things are better than on track” and “so far so good”, according to Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.

He said in the Dáil yesterday that the “fiscal figures for April” would show that the “tax profile is beyond” the previous government’s “budget estimate for December and expenditure is below the budget estimate for expenditure”.

Mr Noonan said that “for the first four months of the year things are better than on track and we hope that continues for the rest of the year but it does vary”. He added that “we will not have any degree of certainty until we get the June figures. It will be early July, therefore, before I would be firm on the figures but so far so good.”

During Dáil finance questions Mr Noonan said he believed that Ireland’s “position is now sustainable”. He told Fianna Fáil spokesman on public expenditure Michael McGrath that Ireland “is not in the same category as Greece” or Portugal “and people who talk about sustainability should remember that we are going into surplus on the balance of payments and any country that has a balance of payments surplus is not insolvent when the whole figure is taken together”.

While debt for Ireland would peak in 2013 at 118 per cent of GDP the figure for Greece was 157 per cent “and that is before its more recent crisis and it is tending upwards all the time”.

Mr McGrath pointed out that by 2015 national debt interest repayments would account for 21 per cent of tax revenue but that tax revenue is “based on a figure which is 27 per cent higher than the 2011 tax revenues”.

He said if the figure was “more optimistic than the reality” the amount of tax going to repay interest could be 25 per cent or even more. “While we have to plan on the basis of the figures the department has produced, based on experience and track record we must also prepare for a less optimistic scenario.”

The Minister agreed that “all these matters are estimates and projections and they are the best possible estimate based on the facts, but things are changing rapidly internationally” and he believed Ireland’s position was now sustainable.

Later the Minister defended the public interest directors in the covered banks and warned against “going after individuals”.

Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty had asked if the Minister had called in the AIB directors and asked them “what they hell they were doing” in signing off on a “golden handshake” of more than €3 million for managing director Colm Doherty.

Asked if he believed former tánaiste Dick Spring was “fit for the job” as a public interest director, Mr Noonan said he was “well fit”. It would be “inappropriate” to “pick out individual directors and call them in for some kind of reprimand when I do not have a legal leg to stand on”.

He said it was “inappropriate to go after individuals”.

They did not know what position Mr Spring “or any other director” took on any particular issue. “The deputy should be careful not to make statements even under privilege of the House unless he is sure of the position.”

He said he believed in principle the amount paid to Mr Doherty was an “absolute disgrace”.