Irish jobless rate drops, but still above UK

The good news just keeps on coming this year on the Irish economy.

Earlier this month, we got yet more very strong figures on the public finances.

Tax receipts were €2.5bn ahead of schedule for the first 10 months of the year, while debt interest payments were €500m lower than expected. Despite likely overruns on government spending, it means that the budget deficit will fall sharply to below 2% of GDP in 2015.