Ireland can have five years of expansionary budgets - finance minister

DUBLIN, April 28 (Reuters) - Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) can implement expansionary budgets for the next five years with up to 1.5 billion euros extra available each year to divide between tax cuts and additional spending, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday.

"The government will be in a position to introduce our second expansionary budget in October," Noonan said after nudging up growth forecasts for 2015 and 2016, setting Ireland up to remain the fastest-growing economy in the European Union.

"Fiscal space of the order of 1.2 billion euros and up to 1.5 billion euros will be available for tax reductions and investment in public services. Current indications are that a similar amount of space will be available in later years." (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Janet Lawrence)