Budget will not have ‘something for everyone in the audience’, says Martin

There will not be “something for everyone in the audience” in next week’s budget, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

The €4.7 billion package will be revealed next Tuesday but the room for manoeuvre is limited with only around €1 billion available for new spending that has not already been committed to and €500 million available for new tax measures.

Mr Martin said there would be a particular focus on protecting people from energy shortages, an issue which he said took up much of the discussion at the EU-Western Balkans summit in Slovenia.

“In terms of the budget, there will not be something for everybody in the audience. We’ve already set a finite limit in terms of roughly where the one billion extra in expenditure and about half a billion in tax [will go]. We’ve indicated that by 2023, we will be eliminating the current budget deficit. From then onwards we will borrowing for capital purposes only and then hoping to be close to balance by 2025 which is a fairly ambitious and challenging timeframe but one that we’ve set in the Summer Economic Statement.”

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Mr Martin said that while the economy is rebounding well and overall revenues will be stronger than expected year, it will “not change our fiscal parameters.” He said that during the EU summit in Slovenia, many EU leaders spoke about issues in the energy market and how they are affecting various countries.

“We obviously have to focus on the welfare side of it particularly around energy. Even today and last evening notwithstanding the discussion on the Western Balkans, energy prices is an issue across Europe.

“All the prime ministers were highlighting its impact on their societies, particularly the dramatic increase, the issue around the supply of gas. And so there’s structural issues emerging now on the energy market, which will have an impact over the coming months.”

He said there was “a consensus across the meeting last evening and today that the European Union as a whole needs to engage with this energy issue. In fact, the Commission have been asked to prepare proposals for the next EU council meeting with a view to looking at the short term but also the medium-term approach that the Commission and the EU collectively should take in respect of gas prices and respective energy.”