There was an Exchequer surplus in the first three months of the year of €197 million.

This compares with a deficit of €2.3 billion in the same period last year.

The improvement in the Exchequer deficit was driven by an increase in taxes, a reduction in spending and the transfer of €1.6 billion from the National Pension Reserve Fund to the Exchequer.

This relates to the sale of Bank of Ireland preference shares that were used to fund part of the early repayment of IMF loans.

Tax revenue of €10.4 billion was collected in the three months to the end of March - an increase of €1.2 billion or 13.4% compared with the same period in 2014.

This is more than €500m more than targeted.

Income tax was 6% higher than target in March, and was up 7.7% - or €302 million year on year. This is despite reductions in income tax contained in Budget 2015.

Interview with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan

Corporation tax receipts were significantly ahead of target, but payments can be quite volatile.

Receipts of €555 million were €257 million more than expected.

VAT receipts were €3.7 billion, up 12% on the same period last year.

Spending was down 0.2% compared with last year, and is lower than planned at this point in the year.

The health vote spend was 1.4% less than expected during the period.

Debt service costs in the first three months were just over €2bn, and increase of 4.2% compared with the same period last year.

However this was still €89 million or 4.2% lower than expected, due to lower than anticipated bond issuance costs.