Ministers, Fianna Fáil to hold intensive budget talks

Intensive rounds of discussions will begin this week as both government ministers and Fianna Fáil fight to eke out as much as possible from the budget.

Junior minister for housing Damien English yesterday said that “every minister this week is in negotiations to get more money to spend for their department”.

Although much of the changes due to be announced in the budget — including a childcare package, tax rebates for first-time buyers, and an increase in the State pension — have all been promised, the finer details have still to be decided upon.

With just €1bn available — split on a 2:1 basis between spending increases and tax cuts — ministers are fighting to obtain as much as they can.

However, given that the minority government now relies on the support of Fianna Fáil to pass Budget 2017 on October 11, crunch talks will also be held between both Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath throughout the week after the Government was asked to redraft the options around changes to USC last week.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe will also meet with Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary this week.

It is expected that the much-publicised childcare package which Independent Minister Katherine Zappone has been fighting to initially have rolled out to lower- income families will be one of the last proposals to be finalised, as many in Fine Gael would like to see the measures extended to the so-called squeezed middle.

Although a “major issue” for Government, Mr English yesterday hinted that the measures could disappoint some families.

“We want to subsidise low and middle-income earners who are under major pressure. We understand we can’t achieve everything we want to achieve in one budget.

“Certainly I know myself with four children at home — how difficult it is and the cost of managing your family and children.

“It will play out this week, how much money we have to spend in this area,” Mr English told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics.

But Fianna Fáil’s Thomas Byrne said his party favours a different tax credit model which would benefit both lower and middle-come families, who are struggling to pay high childcare costs.

Mr Byrne said there was an impression in the newspapers “that this was an issue that was sorted and it was a fantastic win for everybody and then we discovered that there was a lot of dissent within the party”.