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Health spending overruns, SME caution, and the CWU’s attempts to get Amazon on the phone

The best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Mark Williams, owner of The Sports Room in Wicklow town, who spoke to Ellen O'Regan about the challenges facing small businesses as they head into 2024. Photograph: Laura Hutton

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Úna McCaffrey
Fri Jan 5 2024 - 06:10

The Government used corporation tax receipts that were above expectations to pay for a €1 billion overrun in its health budget last year, according to the Department of Finance’s latest exchequer returns. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports that the State’s general government surplus at the end of the year was €7.8 billion, €1 billion less than the Government had forecast in October and reflective of the additional health spending.

The overall exchequer numbers showed meanwhile that Government tax receipts surged to a record €88.1 billion last year despite the economic slowdown and fears that 2023 would see a reversal in corporate tax payments. In his analysis of the State’s financial position, Eoin asks if the year just ended might soon be viewed as sweet spot before the storm hit.

Separately, there was no good news for mortgage-holders in the latest Irish inflation figures, which showed a rise to 3.2 per cent last month. The move up from 2.5 per cent will dampen hopes for a quick end to the price growth crisis, Eoin writes.

And Ellen O’Regan brings news of a Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) policy paper that identifies the cost and availability of childcare as key barriers to greater female participation in the workforce. The professional body wants to see more State childcare funding.

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Ellen also takes the temperature of the SME sector in today’s Agenda, finding that while most are cautiously optimistic for 2024, they face multiple headwinds, including costs, warehoused tax bills and staff shortages. “It’s so easy for the hidden price increases just to hit you from nowhere,” says one business owner.

Our Business Interview features Communications Workers’ Union general secretary Seán McDonagh, who tells Emmet Malone about the union’s efforts to expand into non-traditional areas as it confronts falling membership. “It’s particularly hard work in circumstances where the likes of Amazon won’t respond to a phone call or correspondence from you,” he says.

John FitzGerald takes a look back to the UK’s big flirtation with privatisations of State entities during the Thatcher era, concluding that the State was lucky to avoid going too far down the same path. Maintaining public ownership of utilities is the best way to safeguard the public interest, he writes.

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