Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy knows, in last year's budget, we set out a number of measures of a one-off and temporary nature. The reduction that was made on a one-year basis was reflected in that cost-of-living package. We said, as an incoming Government, that the decisions we would take in the context of budget 2026 would be taken on a permanent and sustained basis. It is on that basis that every Minister will be engaging with me and the Minister for Finance on the envelope that is agreed by the Government in July about his or her priorities in the context of each Department. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Lawless, has also said that in the context of a pathway on the cost of education, that publication will be made prior to the budget. He has engaged with many student representatives, recognising the costs that many students face. This is why the backdrop is important. There have been sustained cost reductions in recent years. For example, reckonable income is now €64,000, standard rate income thresholds will increase by 15% from September, which is one of the largest increases to maintenance thresholds, and one in three students pays no contribution. In previous years, Governments took sustained permanent action to reduce the cost of higher education.

What we are saying in the context of budget 2026 is that we want to make further changes but it is about what we can do on a sustained and permanent basis. We have to be cognisant of the economic backdrop, something the Deputy dismissed in her contribution. We face significant economic uncertainty. Everyone in this House needs to realise the level and degree of the concentration risk for corporate risks that exists right now. The changes being undertaken by the OECD in the context of corporation tax bring uncertainty. The underlying trade environment and the open trading economy Ireland sits within present significant uncertainty. This is why we need to approach budget 2026 with caution and we must be assured that the decisions we take can be sustained over the medium to long term. It is on that basis that we are trying to calibrate a tax and expenditure package that is appropriate and responsible. This will involve Ministers making choices and setting out clear priorities around their expenditure demands or changes they want to make to taxation. Ensuring we protect the resilience of the Irish economy is central. If we look at the past number of years, we can see that there has been significant growth in public expenditure in responding to the series of crises the Irish economy faced. We now know many of the downside risks that exist could well crystallise in the short term, which is why we need to be careful around overall expenditure.

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