Minister for Finance Jack Chambers has signalled that Budget 2025 will take place on October 1st this year, a week earlier than usual.
Mr Chambers said the shift forward was “absolutely not” a signal of an early general election being planned and that the Government was “absolutely committed” to running its full term into next year.
He said the move was due to meetings of euro zone and EU finance ministers taking place in Brussels on October 7th and 8th and the Government having to submit fiscal and budgetary plans to the European Commission by October 15th.
Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty later described the explanation as a “cock-and-bull story”.
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The earlier-than-expected budget date will – if the Government wishes – make it possible to have an election in early or mid November, provided the Coalition pushes the finance and the social welfare Bills through the Dáil quickly in the first half of October. Doing so would mean the Government could call a general election on November 8th or 15th.
Speculation about the Government calling an early election intensified after Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had solid showings in the local and European elections and Sinn Féin support nosedived to a fraction of its previous strength.
It is now widely expected among Government Ministers and backbenchers, and among their opponents, that the election will take place in October or November of this year.
Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Taoiseach Simon Harris also denied an early general election was planned. He said the dates of the European meetings cited by Mr Chambers have been “long-known among party leaders” and this means it “makes sense to have the budget on October 1st”.
“Outside of the media and political bubble, I can tell you what the people of Ireland will be much more interested in is not the date of the budget but the substance of the budget,” the Fine Gael leader said.
Mr Harris said the Summer Economic Statement next week would “outline, roughly speaking, how much money we have to spend on new initiatives next year and also how much we will have for our tax package too.”
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Doherty told Mr Chambers his comments about the budget being moved forward because of a calendar clash with EU meetings was a “cock-and-bull story”.
Accusing the Government of “taking the public for fools”, Mr Doherty said he has been his party’s finance spokesman for 14 years and the September tax receipts have always been “crucial to the formation of the budget”.
He told Mr Chambers not to pretend that the change of date was “for anything other than to potentially pave the way for an early election”.
In response, Mr Chambers said Mr Doherty was “a complete contradiction” given he and his party have regularly called for a general election to take place. “We’re actually committed to political stability and running our full term,” he said. “And again you dismiss a European meeting ... and that shows your Euroscepticism.”
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