Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 June 2023
88. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Finance the date he expects to announce budget 2024; the factors he will consider when deciding the timing of the event; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30085/23]
View answerThis is a question about the timing of the forthcoming budget, whether the Minister could inform the House if a decision has been made on its timing and the factors that are being considered.
I thank the Deputy for his question. While no decision has yet been formally made by the Government, the normal date for the budget is the second Tuesday in October and I anticipate that will be the date. The decision will be formally made by the Government when I and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, bring a memo to Government to set the date. I expect we will do that very shortly.
I thank the Minister. I welcome his brevity and clarity. I felt that last year the September budget was a positive precedent. September is a month of renewal. A lot of people are planning ahead and the earlier budget helped people to plan for the winter and the months ahead. It should be considered and would be a positive development if we established September as the regular month for the budget. I remember way back coming home from school and there was no "Dempsey's Den" on television because the budget was on, and it was January. That is going back a long time ago now. Then we moved it to October. I certainly feel it would have been a very healthy practice to maintain a September budget and ask if it could be continued and that we do it again on the last Tuesday in September.
An enormous amount of work has to go into the development and preparation of a budget on both the expenditure and the taxation sides. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe will have to go through a detailed round of Estimates, discussions and negotiations with all of his colleagues. The preparation of the documentation is quite a process. On my side, the taxation side, this year we have a particularly extensive Finance Bill because of the introduction of pillar 2 of the OECD base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, agreement on corporation tax. That will add substantial additional text to the Finance Bill. My officials are working very closely with the legislative division within the Revenue Commissioners on the development of that Finance Bill. There is a huge amount of work to be done. The intention would be to go with the normal date.
