Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, by way of background, starting from today, the first opportunity that the Dáil will have to discuss the budget will be next week because we are hoping to publish the summer economic statement after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. I understand that it is going into the Dáil on Thursday so there will be a Second Stage-type debate on that and all of the basic data, to date, will be published in that statement. From the point of view of Deputy Ryan's question, that will give us the latest estimate of the scope there will be for the 2017 budget in terms of tax reductions and increased expenditure. In other words, the so-called fiscal space will be identified. On Tuesday, if one thinks of it in sporting terms, the pitch will be lined on which the game will be played so one will know the parameters of what is available going forward. After that the national economic dialogue will take place on 27 and 28 June in Dublin Castle. The intention is that all of the members of this committee will be invited to participate in the dialogue and will act as a link with the rest of the Houses of the Oireachtas. Invitations will also be extended to the interest groups in society, which range from the employers to the unions, the social pillar and to the various organisations that are normally consulted. The event will last two days. We will have plenary sessions and breakout groups to deal with particular topics.

This will give a view of the objectives of the organised interest groups in society in terms of increased spending and we will listen to them very carefully.

The next step is that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, will publish earlier than usual the mid-year expenditure report. I will let him deal with that but the intention is that on a no policy change basis, he will set out his requirements across Departments for 2017. The combination of identifying the fiscal space and the publication of the Minister's document on expenditure will give the line committees sufficient information to debate the adequacy or otherwise of what is available. However, the fiscal rules mean that there are boundaries to what can be done, and it is within those boundaries that the choices will have to be made. That is the way it will go.

On the tax side, it is normal to publish the papers of the tax strategy group, which is comprised of both departmental officials and Revenue staff, which look at the various tax options. Again, those papers provide basic data such as the consequences of an increase in VAT. My intention is to publish those early this year. They were always published after the budget so that one got a rear view mirror look of the tax assessment by the officials who were advising the Minister prior to the budget. This time I would like to publish them in mid or late July and supply them to Members. In that way, Deputies will have an identification of the fiscal space, the first cut at the Estimates from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, together with the tax policy documents that are under consideration by the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance. Again, my aim and that of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is that on the lead-in to the budget, Parliament or the Dáil would have the same information as the Ministers so that if Deputies want to make alternative proposals, they can do so.

How it will work out between the different committees is hard to predict. One possibility is that members of the health committee will want as much money as they can get while the members of the justice or education committees will have a similar approach, but if one interest group takes all, then there is nothing left for the others. This is the position we are in when trying to determine the best policy position. At the end of the day, we are bound by the constitutional position that it is the Government which brings forward the Estimates and the budget, but our commitment is to take the views of the Dáil into account in the formulation of the budget and to give Members all the information they need to decide on one option over another.

We will have the summer economic statement followed by the event in Dublin Castle, to which Members will be invited. That will be followed by the publication of the Estimates, which Deputy Donohoe will deal with, followed by the provision of the tax strategy papers in mid to late July and then the process will run on. In my introductory remarks I said that it is not possible to finalise matters in July or August because the statistics keep moving. The White Paper that is published on the Friday before the budget is the last piece of data that is available and it is only published at the very end of the process because there is a constitutional obligation on the Government to base its budget on the latest available accurate data. If we try to do it in July or August, the numbers will have changed by the time we get to the budget.