The Exchequer returns published today showed a deficit of just under €1.74 billion for the first four months of the year.
Overall tax revenues for the period were €8.46 billion slightly below the budget target of €8.65 billion.
Expenditure for the period was €9.16 billion substantially below the budget target of €9.7 billion but still ahead of last year's figure of €8.5 billion.
Excise duties were €1.36 billion compared with €1.34 billion for the first four months of last year. Income tax was €2.54 billion compared with €2.73 billion last year.
Receipts from VAT were €3.27 billion while corporation tax was €502 million.
The Department of Finance is sticking to its prediction of an overall €1.9 billion deficit this year.
The Government was tonight sticking to a previously forecast full year deficitof €1.9 billion for 2003 as a whole - but economic observersin Dublin reckoned that target was unlikely to be met in the light of the latestfigures.
On expenditure, funding for the Department of Health went up by 6 per cent, to €2.55 billion.
The figures faced instant criticism from the Labour party.Finance spokeswoman Ms Joan Burton declared: "The Government's economic policyis now in complete disarray and the economy is suffering as a result.
"The exchequer figures are yet more bad news for the Irish economy.""Meanwhile, government policy is an incoherent mass of contradictions," she said.
Tonight's figures followed early statistics confirming a rise in the number ofpeople out of work last month, and Ms Burton added the comment, "Surely thetragedy is that this Government has no coherent economic policy, and that jobsare being lost as a result."