The Government has submitted a new five-year fiscal plan to the European Commission, setting out its spending projections out to 2030, as part of a new framework intended to improve fiscal surveillance across the EU.
Minister for Finance Jack Chambers said the Government’s medium-term fiscal and structural plan, which Ireland will now be obliged to submit every year after the budget, was part of a new EU-wide focus on the medium-term budgetary policies of member states.
The document largely reiterates the spending plans set out in the Coalition’s budget earlier this month but does not include the possible deployment of more than €17 billion from the Apple tax case and AIB share sales.
Mr Chambers noted that as the revised framework allows for plans to be resubmitted when there is a change of government, it is expected that the next government will submit a revised plan following the next general election.
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“The plan published today reiterates that the Irish economy is in a reasonably healthy position,” he said.
“The headline fiscal position has benefited from the post-pandemic recovery of the economy as well as increased revenue flows from the corporate sector in recent years,” he said.
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“That being said, I am conscious that the underlying position is markedly less favourable and further progress will need to be made regarding future structural challenges over the medium term,” Mr Chambers said.
The Government is expected to run a budget surplus of almost €12 billion this year but when windfall tax receipts from the multinational sector are removed this turns into an underlying deficit of €6.3 billion.
“By publishing and submitting our plan today, the Government is meeting its procedural obligations under the new EU fiscal governance framework, while also conscious that the next general election will take place in the first quarter of next year at the latest,” he said.
“Consequently, it will fall to the next Government to produce a revised medium-term plan in due course. The next Government will, of course, have new priorities and new policies,” Mr Chambers said.
He also noted the plan does not include provision for the additional capital spending – over €17 billion – to be financed by the AIB share sales and the proceeds of the Court of Justice of the European Union decision in relation to the Apple tax case.
“The medium-term plan of the next government will present more details on the use and timing of the drawdown of this additional investment,” he said.
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