Minister for Finance Jack Chambers has denied the Finance Bill is being fast-tracked to facilitate a November general election.
Speaking at the launch of a new national payments strategy at the Central Bank’s headquarters in Dublin, Mr Chambers said there had been no discussions within Government to change the timetable for passing the Bill, which gives effect to the changes made in the budget.
“The current schedule for the Finance Bill is that we’re commencing second stage tomorrow and will vote on that tomorrow evening and then the schedule is that we will go to the Oireachtas finance committee on November 5th and there’s been no discussions to alter that timetable,” he said.
The Government is trying to pass several key pieces of legislation, including the Finance and Social Welfare Bills, as speculation mounts that it will call a November general election.
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Minister Chambers earlier submitted a new five-year fiscal plan to the European Commission, setting out the Government’s spending projections out to 2030, as part of a new framework intended to improve fiscal surveillance across the EU.
The new medium-term fiscal and structural plan is part of a new EU-wide focus on the medium-term budgetary policies of member states.
The Government’s document largely reiterates the spending plans set out in the recent budget but notably does not include the possible deployment of more than €17 billion from the Apple tax case and AIB share sales.
Mr Chambers noted that as the revised framework allows for plans to be resubmitted when there is a change of government, it is expected that the next government will submit a revised plan following the next general election.
“The plan published today reiterates that the Irish economy is in a reasonably healthy position,” he said.
“The headline fiscal position has benefited from the post-pandemic recovery of the economy as well as increased revenue flows from the corporate sector in recent years,” he said.
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“That being said, I am conscious that the underlying position is markedly less favourable and further progress will need to be made regarding future structural challenges over the medium term,” Mr Chambers said.
The Government is expected to run a budget surplus of almost €12 billion this year but when windfall tax receipts from the multinational sector are removed this turns into an underlying deficit of €6.3 billion.
“By publishing and submitting our plan today, the Government is meeting its procedural obligations under the new EU fiscal governance framework, while also conscious that the next general election will take place in the first quarter of next year at the latest,” he said.
“Consequently, it will fall to the next Government to produce a revised medium-term plan in due course. The next Government will, of course, have new priorities and new policies,” Mr Chambers said.
The Minister later unveiled a new national payments plan, setting out how the State and its agencies would deal with the ongoing switch away from cash to electronic payments.
Under the plan, government bodies will be bound to continue to accept both cash and electronic payments for goods, services or fines.
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