Quarter of tax take to service debt

A QUARTER of the state’s entire tax take next year will go on servicing the exploding national debt, it was revealed.

The country will plunge €112 billion into the red in 2011 – triple €37.6bn debt marked up in 2007, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard.

News that the €5bn the Exchequer is to spend servicing this year’s debt of €94bn, would climb to €6.5bn next year – more than a quarter of the estimated €35bn the state will take in tax receipts – set alarm bells ringing on the influential committee.