Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. At approximately 4.30 p.m., the Government will publish the summer economic statement which sets out, as the Deputy said, the fiscal parameters for budget 2024, that is, the budget package for next year, which will be announced in October.

I am satisfied that it provides the kind of multibilllion euro response required to help families with the cost of living, providing for a significant welfare and pensions package, as well as for greater tax fairness.

It strikes a balance in terms of where we are in the economic cycle because we want to continue to be prudent with the national finances. We have, as the Deputy will be aware, full employment for only the second time in a generation and will record a budget surplus again next year.

I particularly want to thank the Ministers, Deputies Michael McGrath and Donohoe, for their work on the document.

The reason we will be able to produce the summer economic statement that we are this afternoon is because we have full employment, rising incomes, and record levels of trade and investment. Because of that, the Ministers this afternoon will set out the parameters of the next budget, which will include a tax package of over €1 billion to help working families put more money in their pockets, reward work and help with the cost of living and a spending package much greater than that, allowing for increases in pension and increases in welfare, as well as spending in areas that are so important, such as health, housing and education, to be increased.

It will also indicate that we will set aside all, or at least close to all, of the windfall corporation tax receipts because we do not believe it is right to make spending commitments that may be recurrent using tax receipts that may be transitory. That money will be used to help pay down debt, to be set aside for future things such as pension liabilities, infrastructure projects and demographics, as well as a small increase in capital investment in the near term.

Where the Deputy is wrong is in his assumption that a change of Government would somehow make the situation better. Of course, a change of Government would make things much worse. If we pursued the economic policies that the Deputy's party advocated, going back 12 years ago when it aligned itself with Syriza and Varoufakis and burning the bondholders etc., to its policies after that where it said we should borrow more and to its anti-business policies after that, and if we had followed the advice that we got from Sinn Féin for the past 12 years, we would have a very different summer economic statement today.

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