THERE will be two Budgets next year, if reforms outlined by the Minister for Finance are implemented.
Other budgetary reforms unveiled by Mr Quinn include moving to a three-year budget cycle, and ending the system of pre-budget submissions being sent to the Minister of Finance.
Mr Quinn said that the merits of bringing budgetary arrangements forward in line with other European states should be considered. The process would then be completed before the year for which the Budget was intended would begin.
The change will impose new pressures and strains upon existing arrangements but is it necessary, according to Mr Quinn. "We need to move carefully but move me must," he said.
The need to plan carefully, coupled with the pressures of taking on the European Presidency later this year, meant that the change would not occur until the 1998 budget, Mr Quinn said. Under the reform Ireland would have two budgets next year, the 1997 budget which would be delivered in January as normal and the 1998 budget which would be delivered in late autumn.
Mr Quinn said he intended to begin to provide for multi-annual budgets which would involve a three-year cycle. These would be based on a projection of the budget position assuming existing levels of programmes and services and existing tax rates.
"This new arrangement will enable us to move away from the restrictive straitjacket of much of the ritual which tends to characterise our departmental expenditure estimates each year," Mr Quinn said. Many companies already operated multi-annual budgetary arrangements, and it made "good sense" for the Government to do likewise.
The system of pre-budget submissions is also to undergo a radical overhaul as these are now to be heard and discussed by the Finance and General Affairs Committee of the Oireachtas. The Minister for Finance will not attend the hearings, but a report and recommendation on each submission will be sent to the Minister. The hearings for next year's budget are expected to take place in September.
Mr Quinn said the number of submissions had increased dramatically in recent years and was continuing to grow. It was impossible to agree to all requests for meetings, and even where meetings did take place "the process is unsatisfactory as the dialogue is one way.
Mr Quinn also plans to publish an outline of the main features of the Finance Bill within a couple of weeks to enable interested parties to prepare for the detailed discussions when they are published in the Bill.
Mr Quinn said the benefits which would derive from the package of changes would improve Ireland's efficiency and effectiveness.