No upcoming giveaway budget to woo voters, Donohoe says

Finance Minister Michael McGrath indicated last week that the  next budget will contain some once-off payments to help support the public

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said past budgets were driven by 'inflation going through the roof'. Picture:Dan Linehan

There will be no giveaway budget in a bid to win votes, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has said.

With a general election set to come in the months after this year's budget, there has been some suggestion that Mr Donohoe and Finance Minister Michael McGrath could use the projected budget surplus to woo voters ahead of an election.

However, in Blanchardstown on Wednesday, Mr Donohoe said that while the last two budgets have been labelled giveaways, they reflected a necessary level of spending to meet demands from the cost of living being experienced across the country.

He said that the Government is "only beginning" the process of putting together the Summer Economic Statement, which will outline the broad parameters of the budget. 

However, he denied that the Government has put together giveaways in recent years.

"The last two budgets that we've done were very big, but they were driven by the fact that we had inflation that had gone through the roof," he said. 

When we were making energy credits available, that was because the price of electricity and gas had soared. 

"We were putting a lot of money back into the economy but prices had soared at the same time.

"And if you look at where we are now, we were warned not to make budget decisions that add to inflation. We were warned don't make budget decisions that mean we're still borrowing. We haven't done that.

"We've adopted a sensible approach to doing our budgets."

Mr Donohoe added that he has no fears that ministers will oversee overspending at their departments in the knowledge that they will be covered by he and Mr McGrath, due to the proximity to the election.

Mr McGrath last week indicated that the budget will contain once-off payments.

"The changed inflation environment will have an impact on our approach to the budget,  and we did have a vast array of inflation-related payments, exceptional supports, one-offs last year," he said on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

"That's not to say that there won't be any exceptional measures or any additional support, but that decision has not been made," he said.