The State's national debt rose to just under €236 billion last year up from €218 billion 12 months earlier as spending on pandemic-related measures and supports continued to mount up, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This equates to more than €47,00 for every individual in the State and is one of the biggest national debts in the world on a per capita basis.
However, the CSO figures show that series of Covid-induced deficits in the public finances morphed into a surplus of €3.5 billion in the final quarter of last year. With revenue of €31.1 billion and expenditure of €27.7 billion, the Government reported a surplus of €3.5 billion in the fourth quarter. This surplus is an improvement of €5.2 billion on the same quarter in 2020, driven primarily by an increase in tax revenues of €5.6 billion, the CSO said.
Covid measures
The figures show that spending on Covid-19 measures, the lion’s share of which went on financial supports to impacted workers, amounted to about €2.4 billion in the past three months of 2021, which was €1.6 billion lower than in the same time in 2020.
The decrease was mainly due to lower expenditure on the pandemic unemployment payment, which has now been discontinued.
General government debt was put €235.9 billion at the end of 2021. This represented 56 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), down from 58.4 per cent a year previously.
This reduction was driven entirely by the increase in GDP as the overall debt was up by €18 billion in the same period, the CSO said.
Even with the rapid turnaround in employment and growth, Ireland still has one of the highest per capita debt levels in the world, leaving the economy here more vulnerable to shocks.
