Simon Harris: I will be able to say no budget

Despite dubbing himself “Sensible Simon”, some have questioned whether Mr Harris will be able to say no to Fine Gael ministers as easily as Mr Donohoe was. Picture: Moya Nolan

New finance minister Simon Harris has rejected suggestions that he will not be able to say no to Fine Gael ministers’ budget requests.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, the Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader said he was “always the final court of appeal” during negotiations, as he defended promoting himself to the Department of Finance.

He also said “barring an unforeseen shock”, there will be a tax package in Budget 2027.

Mr Harris appointed himself as finance minister following Paschal Donohoe’s decision to depart politics in November to take a job with the World Bank in Washington DC.

Despite dubbing himself “Sensible Simon”, some have questioned whether Mr Harris will be able to say no to Fine Gael ministers as easily as Mr Donohoe was, noting that being party leader adds an added layer of complexity.

However, the Tánaiste insisted this will not be the case.

“If you get a no from the minister of finance, you go to the party leader anyway,” he said. “This just saves them the hassle. They only have to come to one person. It won't change anything. It’s a more efficient way.

When you're the party leader, you're always the final court of appeal anyway. You can be absolutely sure that ministers were coming to me in my party leader/Tánaiste role as well.

When he appointed himself finance minister, some within Fine Gael suggested Mr Harris was trying to block the accession of people who could challenge his position, including Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Peter Burke.

Mr Harris denied this, arguing he is “captain of the team” and it is his “job to put people in roles that I think they are best served for”.

He said: “most of them are less than three years” in Cabinet, and that when “Paschal left, I felt it was almost a responsibility on me to come back and try and kind of lead the domestic agenda.

“I felt this minimised disruption in government.”

Mr Harris said the Government will continue to increase funding for public services but will face challenges when it comes to delivery. He noted that “writing a cheque isn’t actually going to be the most important thing for everything” in budgets.

He admitted that being able to show “real delivery on housing is going to be key for the next election”, adding the Government must be “obsessed and focused on delivery” of infrastructure.

Following criticism of the absence of a tax package in Budget 2026, Mr Harris said he believes the Government will be able to introduce one as part of the next budget.

He noted the last government did not introduce a tax package in its first budget but did so in the following four, adding that he “sees a similar rhythm here".

“All of the economic projections available show that the economy will continue to grow next year. That'll be more jobs next year, even with the impact of tariffs. We ran budget surpluses. We've set money aside in future funds. The country's economy […] is in reasonably good shape.

“Therefore, I do believe, barring an unforeseen shock, we will be in a position to get back to normal tax packages next year.”