Room for ‘€2.5bn October giveaway’

Finance Minister Michael Noonan could have €2.5bn to spend in pre-election budget giveaways because the economy is growing so rapidly, analysts say.

The predictions come as the Department of Finance released another set of buoyant exchequer figures.

These showed that the Government collected overall tax revenues of over €17.28bn in the first five months to the end of May, up 10.9% in the year.