Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said the October Budget will not used for an exercise in electioneering, but will represent the “first Budget of a new business cycle”.

Mr Noonan was speaking at the National Economic Dialogue in Dublin Castle on Thursday, which is designed to facilitate “an open and inclusive exchange” on the competing economic and social priorities facing the Government as it prepares for the Budget.

He said the €1.2-€1.5billion the Government has to play with within the next Budget was “not the scope that’s in the Budget - it’s the margin of scope that’s in the Budget”.

“The Budget is in excess of €50billion,” he said. “We have to look at the €50billion base and see what could be changed there.

“Do we really need it all? Could we substitute better programmes for existing programmes, or more effective programmes for existing programmes?”

He said the €1.2-1.5 billion “is the margin of space, but it’s a narrow enough debate”.

“The last thing you want to see is you look at the next Budget...it’s the last Budget of a political cycle - people talk about election Budgets and so on - I’m not looking at it as the last Budget of a political cycle. I’m looking at it as the first Budget of a new business cycle.

“So if you think of it on that basis, it widens the debate and makes your inputs far more relevant. You can’t change a country in a Budget, but you can make a fair shot of changing society over five Budgets.”

He called for those present to “think out to 2020 against a backdrop of a growing economy of somewhere between 3 and 4 per cent”.

“Then you have an awful lot of space for changing the way Ireland is and the way Ireland works in the future,” he added.