Minister for Finance Jack Chambers has announced that the budget will be held a week earlier than usual this year, fuelling speculation over an autumn general election.
Mr Chambers, who was promoted into the ministerial role last month, said the budget will take place on October 1st. He also said the current Government will run its full term of office until March 2025.
Speaking on both Newstalk and RTÉ radio, the Minister said the budget would take place on that date as the fiscal and budgetary submissions to the European Commission have to be sent a week before the EU’s meeting on October 15th.
When asked if the early budget was to facilitate a general election, Mr Chambers said: “Absolutely not. There’s a reason why it's on the 1st of October, which is that we have to prepare a budgetary and fiscal framework for the 15th of October, and I'll be attending Ecofin and the Eurogroup meeting the week prior to that. And so that's why it's on the 1st of October.
“We're absolutely committed to running the full term as a government. And I think obviously implementing a lot of what we want to set out in Budget 2025, in the context of a finance bill and a social welfare bill. And that will take a period of time in the aftermath.
“As a Government, we want to make sure we plan for the long term future, which means sustaining progress over many years and not undermining progress made to date.
“We have really positive exchequer returns, which I think demonstrates the strength and resilience of the Irish economy. The income tax of €16 billion, up seven per cent compared to 23 [per cent], corporation tax of €12 billion, up 15 percent. And that's at €11 billion, up six per cent. And that speaks, I think, to the success of the recovery of the Irish economy after Covid and the resilience of the labour market with over 2.7 million people at work and with inflation moderating now.
“It is important that we have a careful and sensible budgetary policy as we enter into 2025. And that's why, as a Government, we've committed to the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure Nature and Climate Fund so that we actually protect and save for the future. So I expect by the end of this year that we'll have €10 billion put aside to provide for that medium term risk, which is within our economy.
“We know if you look at the corporation tax receipts that we received for the month of June, for example, they're significantly up on the first quarter of this year. We know the volatility and unpredictability of corporation tax, and that's why the budget for 2025 will require ministers to prioritise. We are very clear that we have a number of existing expenditure pressures within our budgetary framework.”
Mr Chambers replaced Ireland's European Commission nominee Michael McGrath as minister for finance last month.
A qualified doctor, Mr Chambers has sat in the Cabinet since 2020 in various junior ministerial roles and was also named as Fianna Fáil's deputy leader in June following his recent success as director of elections for local council polls.
He was elected to the Dáil for the first time in 2016 at the age of 25 and has also served as Government chief whip.
He will have just over three months to craft the key pre-election package of tax cuts and spending increases alongside Minister for Public Expenditure and former minister of finance Paschal Donohoe, who has helped negotiate the last eight budgets.
