Mystery surrounding sources of corporate tax bounty which has hit €6.3bn

Corporate taxes continued to flood into the exchequer’s coffers last month, compounding a mystery about their source and raising doubts about whether a future government can rely on the company receipts after the election.

The Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance have moved in recent weeks to dampen down speculation that only a handful of multinationals are accounting for the huge bounty.

The unexpected treasure has also prompted suggestions multinationals based in Ireland are paying larger tax bills here after worldwide efforts to stop tax abuses.