Ireland got back from EU over twice what it made in payments to union

IRELAND received over twice the amount of money it paid to the EU last year despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the union.

But the Court of Auditors refused for the eighth year in a row to give a clean bill of health to the EU's €93 billion budget because of errors and poor accounting systems.

Ireland's receipts from the EU budget have been dropping steadily from a high of €3.3 billion in 1997. Payments to the EU have doubled since 1994 when they were €638 million.