The national expenditure of the Irish Free State in 1926

Abstract

In the Economic Journal, March, 1933, I based an estimate of the national income of the population of the Irish Free State in 1926 on the published official statistics in the reports on the Census of Population and Censuses of Production and in the annual reports of the Revenue Commissioners. As Appendix E to the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into De-Rating (1931) there is an interesting calculation of the distribution of taxation between agriculturists and non-agriculturists in the Irish Free State. I propose to carry this investigation further in an attempt to ascertain how the estimated national income of £164.5 million in 1926 was spent. Adding back £.5 million for assurance premiums (net) paid to outside companies, the total income becomes £165 million. This does not include old age pensions, which in 1926-27 amounted to £2.5 million. They were excluded from national income because they are not pensions based on economic service and represent no more than an internal transfer of income on social grounds; but they are part of the spendable fund and must therefore be treated in the national expenditure which, with savings, should amount to £167.5 million.