THE REPUBLIC had a tax-to-GDP ratio that was significantly below the EU average in 2007, according to statistics released yesterday.

The Irish ratio was 31.2 per cent compared to an EU average of 39.8 per cent, according to the figures from the European Commission’s statistics service, Eurostat.

The ratio within the EU ranged from 29.4 per cent in both Romania and Slovakia to 48.3 per cent in Sweden. The Eurostat report, T axation Trends in the European Union, noted that the union's tax ratio "remains generally high, exceeding those of the US and Japan by some 12 percentage points."

The overall ratio for the euro zone was 40.4 per cent and, as in the union generally, had increased slightly from the 2006 figure.

The report gave figures for countries’ tax rates on labour, consumption and capital. On labour it said the EU average in 2007 was 39.8 per cent while the rate for the Republic was 25.7 per cent.

On consumption the corresponding figures were 34.4 per cent and 25.7 per cent while for capital the corresponding figures were 28.7 per cent and 18.5 per cent.