The Government has collected an extra €1 billion in taxes according to exchequer figures released this evening by the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen.
Year on year tax receiptes were up 7.5 per cent compared to an expected increase of 3.4 per cent to the end of September 2005.
According to the figures there was a €351 million excess on VAT and a €300m excess on Income Tax, which includes receipts from the Revenue Commissioner's special investigations.
Government spending stood at €24,670 million at the end of September, an increase of 9 per cent over the same period last year, however, it the figure is €916 million below the target for the first nine months of the year.
Despite these figures an exchequer deficit of €1,123 million was recorded for the first three quarters of 2005.