Ireland must avoid repeat of recent overspending - IMF

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland must avoid a repeat of recent expenditure overruns to protect the progress made in repairing its public finances, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said at the end of a mission to Ireland on Tuesday. Ireland's budget deficit likely fell by less than expected last year, Dublin said earlier this month, as a jump in year-end government spending, particularly in healthcare, prompted some concern that fiscal discipline may be slipping. The IMF, which was one of Ireland's external lenders during a bailout that ended in 2013, said the economy's recovery was robust but that crisis legacies persisted, including "unacceptably high" youth and long term unemployment. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)