No changes to personal taxes in Budget, Donohoe says

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

There will be no changes to personal taxes in the Budget, the Finance Minister has said.

The Summer Economic Statement set out a planned package of €9.4 billion for Budget 2026, including €7.9 billion in additional public spending and €1.5 billion in the tax package.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Paschal Donohoe said that the tax package was focused on “jobs and investment”.

He said: “The most important thing we can do in preparing a Budget is to put in place the measures that will help keep jobs within our country, keep what we have and get more jobs in the future.

“And the main priority, and how we will do that from a taxation perspective, will be regard to measures that can enhance the competitiveness of our country and support further investment within our economy as well.

“The consequence of that is there will not be changes from a personal taxation within the Budget, because I’m going to be prioritising decisions instead with regard to jobs and investment in the future of our company.”

Pressed on whether that meant there would be no changes to tax bands, Mr Donohoe said: “I’m indicating that we’ve a tax package overall of €1.5 billion.

“That is the biggest tax package that I believe is safe to implement within our economy.

“If we would go beyond €1.5 billion, that runs the risk over time of narrowing our tax base and undermining safety in our public finances and the ability to pay for our public services in the future.

“Many of the different budgets that I’ve done in the past have brought forward indexation, and the cost of doing that is at around €1.2 to €1.3 billion.

“If I was to move ahead with all of the different measures that I’ve been asked to do, it could give rise to a total tax package overall that I believe would be too big and would pose risk within our economy.

“And the decision that we are working on at the moment is how we can prioritise further investment within our economy and getting and keeping jobs.”

Meanwhile, Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said no decision on Christmas welfare bonuses will be announced before Tuesday but noted it had been a feature of several Budgets.

He said the emphasis of the social protection approach will be on “targeted measures”.