THE OIREACHTAS FINANCE Committee is seeking submissions from anyone interested in having their say on the forthcoming Budget.
Barring them being reshuffled out of their current roles, Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin will deliver their fourth budget on Tuesday, 14 October and in the coming months the numbers will be crunched and the policies will be worked out.
Before then the Oireachtas Finance Committee, chaired by Labour’s Ciarán Lynch, is seeking public and interest group submissions with a view to holding public hearings.
Though the government is being widely told to take €2 billion out of the economy, Noonan has repeatedly said it is more important to achieve a Budget that reaches the 3 per cent deficit to GDP ratio and with encouraging exchequer figures this week that could mean a budget adjustment of less than the €2 billion.
In a statement today, Lynch has said that while submissions are welcome it would be helpful if contributions that call for expenditure increases or tax reductions point out where the money is going to come from for such measures.
“Where submissions propose increases in expenditure or reductions in taxation, it would be helpful if contributors were to suggest, at a minimum even in terms of general principle, ways in which the cost of their proposals might be met,” he said.
“We will consider any written submissions received and may decide to invite a number of contributors to public hearings.”
If you want to make a submission address it to the the Clerk to the Joint Committee and e-mail it to fincom@oireachtas.ie or by post to: The Clerk, Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, Committees Secretariat, Leinster House, Dublin 2.
The closing date is 6pm on Monday, 16 June. Further details on submissions can be found here.
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