Simon Harris has said that the move to introduce changes to income tax in the next budget was not influenced by fuel protests, reports Breaking News.
The Tánaiste explained that he had made this commitment within days of taking on the role of finance minister in November, and that it forms part of the Programme for Government, reports Breaking News.
He was speaking after Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers remarked on Tuesday that Budget 2026 “didn’t give workers a break” and that this would “have to be a priority in the context of Budget 2027”.
Chambers added that supporting workers on low to middle incomes would be a key focus for the upcoming budget scheduled for October 6th, reports Breaking News.
While speaking in Co Kildare on Friday, Harris reiterated that the decision had not been driven by the fuel protests.
“No, I said it before Christmas, I said it within days of becoming a Minister for Finance that there needs to be a personal income tax package budget,” he said, rnb
“I don’t think that’s particularly surprising to many people. When we came together and formed the Programme for Government, we did make it clear we wanted to make progress on personal income tax over the lifetime of the government,” reports Breaking News.
“We had to make a series of decisions this year to support housing and to support business, small businesses in the hospitality sector. That did, I suppose, reduce the room for a personal income tax package in this current budget, but it is our collective intention to proceed with income tax measures in the forthcoming budget,” reports Breaking News.
“The composition of that is too early, we need to work our way through that to decide what is the best way. But I actually think the compelling case for an income tax package is even strengthened now. In a cost-of-living crisis, one of the best things you can do is help people keep some of their own money and work always has to pay. So it is our intention to do that,” reports Breaking News.
“The next staging post will be the summer economic statement, where we generally provide a breakdown on the amount that we intend in the budget to be for new spending measures and the amount we intend in the budget to be for taxation,” reports Breaking News.
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