Ireland slashes budget deficit forecast on bumper tax take

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's finance minister on Tuesday slashed his forecast for its year-end budget deficit to 1.7 percent of gross domestic product from 2.1 percent, after tax collections in November beat forecasts by 470 million euros.

Earlier this year the government forecast a budget deficit of 2.7 percent of GDP, but a combination of a booming economy and a surge in corporation tax paid by multinationals changed

that forecast, Michael Noonan told a parliamentary committee.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Mark Heinrich)