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THESE DAYS NOBODY in this country looks forward to the Budget.
While Charlie McCreevy lavished us with tax cuts and all sorts of lovely goodies when the boom was, er, getting boomier, these days Michael Noonan and before him the late Brian Lenihan deliver pain and austerity to most if not all Irish citizens on Budget day.
We’re well used to having all this happen in December but this year the Budget is in October.
But why is that? TheJournal.ie explains all.
The simple reason is that Ireland has adopted a common budgetary timeline along with other euro area countries that have signed up for the so-called ‘two-pack’ proposals.
No, not quite.
The ‘two-pack’ proposals state that as part of the common budgetary timeline, euro-area member states submit their draft budgetary plans for the following year i.e. 2014, to the European Commission and the Eurogroup – members of the eurozone – before 15 October along with the macroeconomic forecasts on which they are based.
This means Europe has to take a look at our budget proposals in order to make sure they do not breach the deficit rules which we’ve signed up to. Remember all that stuff about the Fiscal Compact Treaty?
True the Budget is not being announced until the deadline of 15 October but last week the European Commissioner responsible for economic affairs, Olli Rehn, said that the government’s budget plans are a “sound basis” for correcting the public finances.
That’s a big thumbs from Europe so the government has the all clear to announce the Budget on Tuesday.
Yes, but one of the reasons we’re getting the full Budget now is because, as Michael Noonan explained last year: “I’m not too sure our system would sustain a draft budget announced in October, and everybody ganging up to stop it between then and December.”
Neither does the independent TD Stephen Donnelly who was pretty scathing in his reaction to Noonan’s comments last year.
“I find his attitude pathetic, what they’re saying is the Dáil is a joke,” he toldTheJournal.ie.
“Is parliament mature enough to debate the finances of the nation? Let’s find out. Let’s stop treating parliament like it’s some sort of joke.”
Sinn Féin notes some benefits to having an earlier budget.
It’s particularly helpful to the retail sector because it introduces certainty for the rest of the year and avoids the dip you get in consumer sentiment when there is lots of speculation about the Budget in the lead-up to December and Christmas, retailers’ busiest time of the year.
Fianna Fáil is cautious about introducing a budget that does not take account of the full year figures.
Its finance spokesperson Michael McGrath told us last year : “The risk in bringing it forward to early involves increasing the risk of a supplementary budget being brought in the following year.”
All that said both parties have produced their pre-Budget submissions this week and have raised no major concerns about the Budget being in October this year.
No, the financial year in this country used to be April to April which meant that the Minister for Finance usually announced the Budget at the beginning of the year as opposed to the end of it.
However, Charlie McCreevy moved the financial year to January to December in 1997 which meant that there was a nine-month Budget in 1997 with McCreevy delivering one Budget at the end of January and another in December which covered 1998.
It’s not the first time the Budget has been held in October. On this day five years ago the government outlined the Budget for 2009 bringing forward the announcement in light of the financial crisis. While in April 2009 there was an emergency Budget – the government’s second in six months – as the economy began to collapse.
Yes it’s looking that way at least under this government, for the foreseeable future.
As 2pac might say: “That’s just the way it is.”
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Once should be put on first plane out of country once finished his time
@KevinMunster: Racist because he wants a thug deported. Are you for real
@KevinMunster: What is racist about deporting the bad bollix.
@Celtic_Horizon: should be thrown out of the plane over the Atlantic you mean ,but dont let the bleeding heart nut jobs know
@Ciaran Kehoe: Racist are you fu€k!ng kidding me. Your talking to irish man born in uk who has lived in usa. And believe me I have gotten more greaf from my own kin than I did from brits or yanks. But lets be clear I believe that anyone that isn’t irish causing trouble should be kicked out as I do any Irish living in other countries, if they are booted out should be sent home although if there plane found it’s plane landed in Siberia it wouldn’t be worst thing to happen. Toss pot
@Celtic_Horizon: sorry aimed at KevinMunster
Who could have predicted a man with multiple previous convictions in multiple different countries would commit crime in our country? Keep that door open! #criminalswelcome
Nothing works better than a ‘warning shot’ straight into the mush.
@Paul Culligan: You honestly couldnt make it up, think of the amount of money this investiagation cost the state after a shaky garda with a gun!
@Paul Culligan: He probably sang like a canary after that.
Freedom of movement seems to have as many minuses as advantages..hard to believe criminal gangs can move about Europe so freely
@Kieran OKeeffe: freedom of movement ensures the easy Islamisation ,whatever percentage of Muslims involved ,of the west. Don’t believe me ? Check out western Europe today and the census
@ Kieran this has f*ck all to do with Islam! Gee you must see Islam in everything, this article is about ram raiders… Did you need read the article?
Stop hyping up the threat of Islamic extremism, it’s all hype and the media are just as much to blame for hyping it up and the extremists themselves
With several prior convictions for theft in Holland and Norway, how or why was he ever allowed into Ireland? Seriously searching for an answer to this simple question.
How about a worldwide rule that criminals are not allowed to travel?
It would help to stop people making the choice to become a criminal.
@Scundered: He wouldn’t get into Australia or Canada anyway based on the border security shows I’ve seen.
Likewise he probably wouldn’t get into the uk once they brexit and start to pull up the plank..
How do you weigh a car with a concrete block? :/
5 year jail sentence, out in 3 for good behaviour. More nonsense from Tom O’Donnell, another joke of a judge.
Euthanasia is the answer to this guy!
I didn’t know trannies and cross dressers were so desperate to get their fix.
GET RID OF HIM
have your say