The Cabinet is to give the green light to holding the Budget on 27 September – two weeks earlier than initially planned.
It comes as the government is set to publish its Summer Economic Statement later today, which will set out the parameters of the Budget.
Last year’s Summer Economic Statement published the parameters of the Coalition’s Budget plans for the next five years.
It included a spending rule which would limit increases in public spending to 5% a year to bring the public finances back into line after the significant sums borrowed to tackle Covid-19.
That looks likely to be set aside – at least temporarily – in the face of surging inflation and leeway from better-than-expected tax returns.
RTE News is reporting that the Budget package will be €6.7 billion, which is €2.2 billion greater than planned.
Around €1 billion of this will be in tax changes, which is twice the amount originally set out.
Overall expenditure is expected to increase by between 5% and 10%.
There is speculation that expenditure could be focused on additional social welfare payments and fuel related subsidies either directly or through a continuation of some tax reliefs.
The Taoiseach has said that the Government is going to get the balance right on Budget 2023.
Micheál Martin said that the Summer Economic Statement lays out the parameters of what is possible, but Ireland is in a very unique set of circumstances coming out of Covid-19, supply chain difficulties and balance between supply and demand which created its own cycle of inflation.
He said that the war in Ukraine has been very dramatic in its impact on inflation prices, which has fallen into the broader economy.
