Government spent €13 billion on tackling Covid last year – CSO
Figures published the Central Statistics Office today give a provisional breakdown of the €13.1 billion spent by the Government last year to tackle Covid-19.
The Pandemic Unemployment Payment accounted for €5 billion, the CSO figures show.
The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme and its replacement, the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme, accounted for €3.8 billion. Health sector expenditure came in at €2 billion.
Today’s figures show that €100m was spent on “primary care and repatriation”, €600m on restart grants for businesses.
€200m was spent on the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS), €100m on other enterprise support schemes, €800m on IT services and €500m categorised as ‘other’.
The Government Finance Statistics confirm a deficit of €18.4 billion in the public finances in 2020. This is equal to 5% of GDP.
Overall Government revenues were down 3.9% with tax revenues down €2.5 billion compared to 2019.
Indirect taxes, which include VAT, were down 12.5% but direct taxes, which include income tax and corporation tax, were up 2.6%.
Spending was up 19.1%. This was an increase of €16.7 billion on 2019.
Borrowing was up €14 billion to bring the Gross General Government debt to €218.2 billion, the CSO figures show.