Outline plans for a pre-election budget which will cut taxes and increase spending will be published on Tuesday after Ministers approve the Summer Economic Statement, a key budgetary document which will set the parameters for the October budget.
The extent of tax cuts and spending increases was still being wrangled over by the leaders of the three Government parties and the two budget Ministers Jack Chambers and Paschal Donohoe last night.
Ministers and backbenchers are hoping for big spending increases in advance of the general election, but with the Government committed to putting €6 billion into the State’s saving funds, senior sources warn that the scope for giveaways will be limited.
There are also worries about the level of over-budget spending in the Department of Health, which could reach €2 billion this year by some officials’ estimates.
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[ Makhlouf warns against budget giveaway in letter to ChambersOpens in new window ]
In advance of the Government’s last budget before the general election, there were also signs that tensions within the Coalition were building. One Fianna Fáil Minister, speaking privately, took aim at Fine Gael for pushing for a cut to the VAT rate for hospitality which is seen as “highly unlikely”, arguing that it was a pre-emptive move and that the party would blame new Minister for Finance Jack Chambers for not delivering it in October.
Fine Gael is also set to push for a cut to inheritance tax in the budget, criticising the current system as “not right… not fair” and “an undue burden”.
Writing in Tuesday’s Irish Times, Minister of State Neale Richmond said the capital acquisitions tax tax punished the squeezed middle and was “not keeping pace with house values”.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s system for managing the healthcare records of patients would be overhauled under proposed legislation to be considered by Cabinet.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly is expected to seek approval for the Health Information Bill which focuses on digital health records.
[ Bumper €5 billion tax and spending package lined up for Budget 2025Opens in new window ]
Separately, Mr Donnelly will offer an update on efforts to address overcrowding in hospital emergency departments.
The issue has remained in the headlines in recent months due to overcrowding in the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick.
Ministers will hear that overcrowding fell by 14 per cent during the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2023 despite a 10 per cent increase in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments.
Cabinet will hear that, while overcrowding remains a challenge, most patients who visit an emergency department are not forced to wait for admission on a trolley.
Meanwhile, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke is expected to provide an update on the Increased Cost of Business Grant Scheme – a fund of up to €257 million brought in to help small and medium businesses.
[ From now on, don’t believe anything that anyone says about the budgetOpens in new window ]
Some €120 million worth of grants have been paid out to more than 60,000 businesses so far – which represents 83 per cent of all applications to the scheme.
Minister for Sport Catherine Martin is set to present a new three-year National Swimming Strategy.
It covers both indoor and outdoor swimming and it includes an action plan covering areas such as access, inclusion and disability; infrastructure and facilities; and lessons and coaching.
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien is to bring a plan to help Ireland’s endangered hen harrier population.
The four-year plan to be implemented by the National Parks and Wildlife Service falls under Minister of State for nature Malcolm Noonan’s area of responsibility.
A national survey in 2022 estimated there were only between 85 and 106 breeding pairs of the endangered ground-nesting bird in the Republic. If current trends continued, the bird could go extinct here within 25 years.
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