Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is normal in the case of any finance Bill for the Minister for Finance to provide an indicative timeframe within which he believes his officials and the Revenue can come forward with proposals and possible amendments and Opposition amendments can be considered, etc. Last year, the Finance Bill concluded on 6 April. The Government, consistent with doing its work properly, is expediting the process in a sensible manner that meets the requirements of the situation and allows the finance Bill to be dealt with.

The finance Bill is only one of the legislative requirements for completing the budget process. Budget related legislation includes the public services pensions (single scheme) Bill, betting (amendment) Bill - it is important to bring into effect changes in this area - and the social welfare (miscellaneous provisions) Bill. The Minister for Finance has to deal with all of these issues and we have given an indicative timeframe only in respect of the finance Bill.

Issues also arise on Committee Stage regarding civil partnership and tax provisions must come into place to reflect the coming into force of new arrangements on 1 April. As a matter of policy, it is important that all this is done. We are indicating in an up-front manner the requirements of the situation. Considerable work needs to be done. The NAMA (amendment) Bill also has to be introduced in the first quarter as part of the implementation of the EU-IMF programme. The Whip and Government have sought to outline and indicate what the legislative programme will look like for the purposes of dealing with the issues at hand.

See this speech in context