Ireland cannot rely on corporate tax revenue - minister

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland cannot rely on "unreliable and unsustainable" corporate tax receipts, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Tuesday after a rare and large monthly shortfall in company returns hit the country's tax take last month.

Tax revenues fell 5.3% in the first 10 months of 2020, declining at the sharpest rate since the COVID-19 pandemic began after the state collected 198 million euros from companies in October, compared with the 1 billion euros (900.96 million pounds) expected. Corporate tax returns were still up 11.4% year-to-date.

"As I have said many times before, we cannot rely on this revenue stream into the future; a fact that will be reflected in the department's medium-term forecasts," Donohoe said in a statement.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Alex Richardson)