There was a slight slowdown in taxes coming in to the Government last month with DIRT and VAT performing marginally weaker than expected.

However the coalition has still collected more than €500m more than expected since the start of the year.

An exchequer deficit of €2.3bn was recorded between January and April - down from €4.7bn last year.

The difference is due to increased tax receipts and the transfer of the proceeds from the sale of Bank of Ireland shares to the exchequer.