The Tánaiste will pledge in a pre-Budget speech today: ‘If you work hard, you should be able to get ahead, not just get by.’
Echoing former Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar, he will tell a breakfast meeting with small business owners: ‘If you get up early every morning and go to work, you should feel the benefit of doing so. If you put in the overtime, you should see the reward,’ he will say.
Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers, meanwhile, said cuts in HSE services may be needed for the service to function within its annual €29billion budget.
Finance Minister Harris will offer a special income tax package for struggling families to be announced in next month’s Budget. The Government is entering the Budget in a position of financial strength, and aims to reward those who put in the work that drives this country, Mr Harris will tell the meeting in Mullingar this morning.
‘If you put in 40, 50 or 60 hours a week. If you leave home while your children are still asleep. If you take on extra responsibility or extra hours. If you work hard to progress in your career. You should see the benefit. I want hard work to pay,’ he will say.
‘I want overtime to pay. I want progression to pay. And that is why I have been very clear there must be a personal income tax package in Budget 2027,’ Mr Harris will say.
His words are reminiscent of those of Leo Varadkar who, in 2017, when he was launching his campaign for the leadership of Fine Gael, said he wanted to lead a party for ‘people who get up early in the morning’.
Meanwhile, the latest figures show the HSE had overspent by € 580 million at the end of July – or € 22 million overspent every week. The Government’s health service budgeting has been repeatedly criticised by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, which pointed to a cycle of over-budgeting as the primary driver of massive expenditure overruns in the HSE.
Minister Chambers said yesterday that spending by the HSE in August had gone beyond its limit, and indicated other belts will have to be tightened if spending is not brought under control. This means some regional centres may have to work with less finance.
Questioned about this, Mr Chambers told RTÉ’s This Week: ‘Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill has been an exceptional reforming Health Minister who is continuing to direct the message on financial management within the HSE, and that’s why we’re at one in ensuring we have additional corrective action that’s taken.’
He added: ‘There is going to be additional controls introduced by myself and the Minister for Health on ensuring there is greater financial management within the HSE, and that will be done very quickly.’
On the issue of possible rises in carbon tax in next month’s Budget, Mr Chambers said: ‘As people understand, the carbon tax is hypothecated where we ringfence what it brings in for spending plans on retro-fitting; on measures around fuel poverty; and also on the ACRES scheme. So if there’s an extended deferral of carbon tax, that has an impact on what can be spent in those particular areas in 2027.’
ACRES (Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme) is Ireland’s agri-environment climate initiative under the Common Agricultural Policy.
‘There’s been no decision made on this [carbon tax rise] except to say we’re conscious and responsive to the pressure families are under. We want to help families in Budget 2027,’ Mr Chambers said.
He indicated positive measures are on the way to deal with the high cost of childcare.
‘We know… [it] is a substantial burden on a lot of young families and we want to help them,’ he said.
In his speech this morning, Mr Harris will add that the Government will do all it can to assist small and medium-sized businesses feeling the effects of competitive trading and online commerce.
He will say: ‘If we do not have people like you getting up every morning, creating employment, generating wealth, we would not have the choices we have entering Budget 2027. Progress on reducing your cost base; increasing your ability to make ends meet; increase our competitiveness; cutting business taxes; cutting income tax. Those are the priorities as we enter the final stages of Budget 2027.’
Mr Harris will say the proposed savings investment scheme would help people to earn rewards for their investments.
‘People put money aside for a deposit on a home, for their children’s education, for security and for their future. But, too often, we have not made it easy for ordinary people to make more of those savings. That is why I am developing a new Investment Account.
‘We will set out further details as part of the Budget and Finance Bill. I want investing to be seen, not as something reserved for experts… but as another way for working people to build financial security for themselves.’
By Ken Murray and John Drennan
