Budget brought forward by one week to October 1

This year’s budget will be delivered on Tuesday October 1, after the Minister for Finance confirmed it will be brought forward by one week.

Jack Chambers said it was the “natural date” for Budget 2025 because of ministerial duties in Europe the following week.

Mr Chambers also denied that an earlier budget signalled an early general election.

“We have to submit our fiscal and budgetary submission to the European Commission on October 15 and the week prior to that both myself and Minister (for Public Expenditure Paschal) Donohoe will be attending the Ecofin and the Eurogroup meeting,” he told RTE’s Morning Ireland.

“So October 1 is the natural date to have Budget 2025.”

Mr Chambers said the Government is “absolutely committed” to running the full term.

He added: “The fact it is one week different from last year is really of very little difference in the context of the social welfare Bill and the finance Bill, which will conclude at the end of November or early December.”

It comes after the Fianna Fail minister said that this year’s budget will be “tighter” than previous years.

Mr Chambers said he is keen to get back to a more “regular” budgetary environment than what was previously rolled out during the Covid-19 pandemic and high levels of inflation.

“The budget is really framed in a careful way. We’ll obviously set that out next week as part of the summer economic statement,” he added.