Tax

Brian Keegan: Despite external risks, domestic policy errors would do more harm

Conditions may be chaotic, but the outlook for the Irish exchequer is not necessarily bleak

Finance minister Paschal O’Donohoe. How might the current chaotic conditions really impact on government capacity to tax, and then spend? Picture: Arthur Carron

We live in very strange times if a key determinant of economic success is whether or not the weather will be cold in Europe over the winter. Yet that is the unavoidable consequence of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine and the chaos it has created.

Chaos is contagious, and dealing with it saps resources, but at least last week’s exchequer returns showed yet another bumper tax harvest in Ireland.

It used to be the ...