The Irish budget deficit continues to decline and Department of Finance Exchequer returns published Wednesday showed red ink (general government items only) of €3.7bn in the year to end-August, down from €6.5bn a year earlier. Stripping out what is seen as a timing issue in one department, the deficit is €1.9bn (0.9% of GDP) better than the government’s original Budget 2015 expectations — it is likely to undershoot the original target of 2.7% of GDP by a significant margin to result in a likely outturn of below 2% of GDP in 2015.