Government spending and deficit rising

WHAT austerity measures? What cutbacks?

Excluding debt service costs, Exchequer figures to the end of June show an actual increase of almost €1 billion (from €19.6bn to €20.5bn) in government day-to-day spending over the same period last year.

Likewise, when you look behind the massaged figures you find that our deficit actually grew by over €300 million.