Budget deficit smaller than feared despite huge Covid-19 spend

The budget deficit for this year is expected to be significantly smaller than previously feared, despite exchequer spending to combat the Covid-19 crisis leaving the State more than €9 billion in the red.

While the public finances have been severely hit by the extra spending to pay for the pandemic and borrowing remains at record levels, exchequer figures published on Friday show tax receipts have performed more strongly than expected, giving the Government greater leeway as it prepares its first budget, due to be delivered on Tuesday week.

There has also been an explosion in household savings, with the level of household deposits surging to more than €8 billion between January and July – more than twice the level of last year.

The figures showed the deficit at the end last month was nearly €9.4 billion. While that figure will rise steeply before the end of the year, it is now expected to be significantly less than the €30 billion feared at one point, and possibly closer to €20 billion.

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Large spikes

The economic data comes as health authorities on both sides of the Border reported large spikes in the number of new Covid-19 cases.

The North's Department of Health reported almost 1,000 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, the largest daily increase since the pandemic began. It is more than double the previous record, which was set on Wednesday.

Sinn Féin deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill said the North was at a “dangerous stage”, and, while she understood people were “tired and frustrated . . . we all need to follow the guidelines.”

In Dublin, acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said 470 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 had been reported to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), the highest daily total since late April. There have now been a total of 37,063 cases in the Republic since the start of the pandemic.

One further death was reported, but six deaths have been denotified, giving a total of 1,801 deaths, many of them in nursing homes.

A senior NPHET official on Friday night rejected a contention by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar that hospital cases of Covid-19 are increasing only "modestly".

Prof Philip Nolan said the restrictions in Kildare, Offaly and Laois worked, and those in Dublin and Donegal "may be starting to work", but the virus is spreading "at a nearly constant rate" throughout the rest of the country.

Hospitalisation

He predicted 400 virus patients will require hospitalisation by the end of the month if current trends continue. There would be 1,200-1,300 cases a day by then “if nothing changes, and cases and hospitalisations grow as they have been for the last few weeks”.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health confirmed on Friday that passengers arriving from abroad into Ireland are not being monitored to ensure compliance with advice to restrict their movement for 14 days.

The State introduced new electronic passenger locator forms for air and sea passengers in mid-August and set up a new call centre to contact passengers.

However, the Department of Health said the 14-day travel restriction has the status of an advisory and is not mandatory. It said follow-up calls to passengers cannot be used to monitor if people are actually at the location they stated on their forms.

Separately, a confidential draft report by the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee has called for a public inquiry into coronavirus-linked deaths that took place in nursing homes. The report also makes recommendations about testing and tracing and the conditions of lower-paid workers in nursing homes and meat plants.