Mr Donohoe said Minister for Finance Michael McGrath will “carefully consider” comments by the Fiscal Advisory Council, which today warned that political pressure could be a key risk to the public finances.
Mr Donohoe said the reason the country was now in the position of having large surpluses was because he, Michael McGrath and the other party leaders had tried to get the balance right. “The core focus of the Fiscal Advisory Council has been to run surpluses when times are good and don’t spend tax revenue that you believe we might not have tomorrow. And the case I would make and will have to consider very carefully what they’ve said is we’re running a surplus for this year of around €8 billion, €10 billion for the year ahead in 2024.
“We have been doing that year by year. We have been putting more money into dealing with the costs of our society becoming older because people are living for longer. And if you look at last year, we have between last year and this year set aside €6 billion in a national reserve fund while running a surplus. And we’re now examining proposals for a new fund to deal with other costs for the future.”