Economic Policy
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Ged Nash (LAB), Louth

They were, rightly, scathing about this Government's approach to budgeting. They said that the Government was budgeting like there was no tomorrow. The Tánaiste acknowledged there are no forecasts or horizons beyond next year. That is no way to budget. Our view in Labour is that key to this plan is that we should be prepared to reflect on the plan. Perhaps the Tánaiste can confirm to the House this afternoon whether the plan will include the commitment to the introduction of a net spending rule, net of tax changes. That would be really important. The Tánaiste will recall that the previous Government introduced collectively a spending rule of 5%.
That rule was more honoured in the breach. It was not based on any evidence at all or anchored in any plan. We should move to multi-annual budgeting in order to give those who are planning public service provision more certainty. Will the Minister commit to multi-annual budgeting in the plan tomorrow and to the introduction of a net spending rule? In other words, net of tax changes.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18