As the Deputy will be aware, the Government has decided to hold Budget Day on or before the 15th of October from now on. This means that Budget 2015 will be presented and published on Tuesday, the 14th of October this year. This allows us to present our Budget and finalise it through the necessary legislation before the end of the year, in line with our EU commitments, in co-ordination with the rest of the euro area.
The enhanced economic governance regime now in place for euro area Member States directly impacts on national budget preparations. Regulation 473/2013, one of the 'two pack' surveillance and coordination regulations, provides that euro area member countries must make public their draft budget not later than 15 October each year. The Regulation further provides that euro area Member States must submit a separate draft budgetary plan, containing all of the information in the budget but in a common standardised format, to both the Commission and the eurogroup by 15 October. The draft budgetary plan will be made public and submitted to the European Commission by the required deadline, following the presentation of my Budget.
Turning to the Exchequer returns for the first half of the 2014, while it would be helpful to have information about the November tax receipts in light of the points raised by the Deputy, the reality is that there is no provision in the EU regulation allowing the 15 October deadline to be deferred for this reason. Furthermore, the Deputy should note that revenue forecasts based on outturns for the first three quarters have been have been reasonably close to the final outturn in the past few years.
