Tax receipts continue to surge on the back of a strong property market, according to exchequer returns for February published yesterday.

The figures show the Government ran a surplus of € 2.4 billion in the first two months of the year as strong tax revenues combine with slower than expected spending growth.

Fine Gael has reacted negatively to the figures, saying that home buyers were propping up government finances.

The Government received € 7.3 billion in tax during January and February, up 19.4 per cent on the same period of last year.

Capital gains tax receipts turned in the strongest performance, with revenues up by 56.3 per cent. Capital acquisition tax, stamp duties and corporation tax all recorded increases of around 38 per cent, while income tax and corporation tax receipts rose by 14.4 and 12.5 per cent, respectively.

Although the total tax take of € 7.3 was close to the Government's prediction of €7.2 billion for that period, returns for several individual categories were significantly different from expectations.

Capital gains tax revenues rose to € 664 million, compared with an expected € 536 million and corporation tax receipts overshot expectations by € 101 million to reach € 553 million.

Stamp duty receipts rose to € 547 million, compared to an expected €507 million.

Government spending got off to a slow start, however, with total voted expenditure rising by just 4 per cent. In its Revised Estimates of Spending, published last week, the government targeted an increase of 13 per cent in voted spending over 2006.

Rossa White of Davy stockbrokers attributed the performance to buoyancy in the property market "About 25 per cent of VAT receipts and 70 per cent of stamp duties are property-market related. Add in capital gains, which is heavily dependant on property. Therefore, about one-third of the total tax increase this year is directly due to the property market".

Dermot O'Leary of Goodbody stockbrokers said that slow spending had occurred in spite of an acceleration in capital spending.

Fine Gael Finance spokesman, Richard Bruton TD, said that Finance Minister Brian Cowen had "got it seriously wrong" in relation to forecasts. "The growing claims by Ministers that they are coming in ahead of budget are nothing to do with good management but everything to do with hard-pressed house buyers paying up substantial sums of tax on the back of rising house prices"

In a report on the Irish economy published yesterday, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned the Irish gGovernment that its finances could be vulnerable to a slowdown. "As economic activity slows towards more normal rates of growth, the budget may come under increasing pressure".