Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said Ireland can afford to pay an additional €280 million to the European Union's budget.

The Republic must contribute the extra EU payment due to the upward revision of last year’s GDP growth.

It follows figures from the Central Statistics Office, widely seen as overstating the GDP growth for 2015 to 26 per cent from a previous estimate of 7.8 per cent.

As the CSO revised the Republic’s GDP growth for 2015 up to 26 per cent, a bigger contribution is demanded of the State.

Speaking on RTÉ's News at One Mr Noonan said the final bill could be a few million more than it currently stands, as there were still some "moving parts".

He said multinational corporations are less aggressive in their tax planning now, following the abolition of the double Irish tax arrangement, and that certain international corporations brought their IP to Ireland, the combination of which resulted in more corporation tax.