Budget 2024: Frantic weekend of talks ahead as deadline looms without agreement
Several Government departments have not yet agreed their spending settlements ahead of next week’s budget, setting up a frantic final few days of negotiations in Government.
Sources with knowledge of the discussions say that only five departments had agreed their spending plans for next year with Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe as of Thursday morning after weeks of sometimes fraught discussions.
The party leaders are due to meet with the two budget ministers on Sunday to sign off on Tuesday’s package, meaning that a flurry of negotiations will take place on Friday and Saturday.
Top News Stories
- As Ireland seeks to upgrade its military, arms manufacturers take interest: Shortly after the Commission on the Defence Forces published its report last year calling for a large increase in military spending, defence contractors around Europe began showing a heightened interest in Ireland
- Phibsboro crash: Family of Carol Seery (67) was with her at the time of the suspected hit-and-run: The family of a woman (67) who died in a hit and run by a driver in north Dublin were with her at the time and saw the incident. The Irish Times understands that the dead woman, who has been named as Carol Seery, had just finished enjoying a meal with family members in Phibsboro, Dublin 7, when she was fatally struck by a car as she crossed the road at Cross Guns Bridge, shortly after 9pm on Wednesday.
- Garda roster row: ‘Progress’ reported in new talks: Discussions between Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and the four Garda staff associations are set to reconvene unexpectedly on Friday, raising hopes there could be a breakthrough in the protracted rosters dispute.
- Irish woman (30s) in serious condition after shooting in north Australia home: A young woman from Mayo is in a serious condition after suffering a gunshot wound at a house in Darwin, Australia. The woman, who is in her 30s and the mother of a young child, has been named locally as Eileen Gibbons from Castlebar.
- Ireland may opt to pay instead of accepting more refugees under EU deal, Varadkar says: Ireland may opt to give financial contributions to help frontline European Union member states that are dealing with a large number of people arriving irregularly and claiming asylum, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has suggested.
- Ireland’s weather today: A cloudy and damp start this morning with outbreaks of rain and drizzle and some mist and fog patches too. The rain will gradually clear northwards during the afternoon and evening with some hazy sunny spells developing. However, the rain will linger in north Ulster through the evening. Breezy with moderate, occasionally fresh, southwest winds. Highest temperatures of 16 to 19 degrees.
- Happening today: The winners of the TidyTowns competition will be announced, while the The Road Safety Authority will publish a report on Child Casualties. The European Union’s 27 national leaders meet to look for ways to avoid a new migration crisis and address a longer-term challenge of potentially bringing new countries into their bloc.
News from around the World
- Zelenskiy warns of ‘political storm’ threatening support for Kyiv: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged European countries to maintain unity in supporting his country, cautioning against a “growing political storm” in the United States.
- Ukraine war: US condemns ‘horrifying’ attack on Kharkiv village that killed 51: The White House has condemned as “horrifying” the Russian attack on a cafe and grocery store in Ukraine’s Hroza village that killed 51 people on Thursday.
- China’s video gaming success sits uneasily with crackdown: If you walked into any bar in China during the past two weeks, chances are you would have seen the same images on every large-screen TV. It could have been Japan defeating Hong Kong in football or Indian archers edging out Singapore
- Scientists describe ‘gobsmacking’ temperatures after record September heat: The Earth has had the hottest September on record – and by a record-breaking margin, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has said. The unprecedented jump in global temperatures during last month has been confirmed by reliable data sets across the planet.
The Big Read
- Overspending in HSE is a runaway train, but stopping it is politically unfeasible: If health spending were an organism, it would be a flesh-eating bug, consuming all before it and threatening to gobble up any spare resources available. Despite record budgets over each of the last five years, the health service has been unable to live anywhere within its means. Supplementary budgets have been needed for eight out of the last 10 years, and this year threatens to be one of the biggest, writes Health Editor Paul Cullen.
The best from Opinion
- Don’t worry Mr Moneybags, the Government won’t rock the yacht on Budget Day: One Christmas many moons ago, the panto taught us children a lesson about the trickery of an optical illusion. That year, a motorcar was wheeled on to the stage at the Cork Opera House and there followed a high-speed cross-country chase. The car hurtled along twisting roads, bouncing around hairpin bends and dodging trees crouching in its path. We children shrieked in thrilled fright. Afterwards, in the car going home, our mother explained that it was all an illusion, writes Justine McCarthy.
Culture and Life & Style highlights
- Give Me a Crash Course in . . . Parisian bed bugs: Sightings of bed bugs in France have caused paranoia among travellers, as videos have been shared online that appear to show insects crawling over seats on the Paris Metro and a high-speed train.
- BlackBerry director Matt Johnson: ‘We had to shoot secretly as we were making the film without the company’s participation’: The writer, director, actor and all-round creative Matt Johnson has a lot going on. His third feature as director is BlackBerry, a brilliant tech saga that’s as Canadian as its Toronto-born maker. “It’s one of the reasons that I thought making the film would be interesting, because so few people know that BlackBerry is Canadian,” says Johnson
Today's Business
- Neri warns against budget tax cuts as ‘mega-challenges’ loom: The current pace of employment growth is “unsustainable”, and the economic outlook for the next year is likely to be more muted, according to a new report by the Nevin Economic Research Institute (Neri).
- Business Interview - ‘There are travel agents that used to book Ireland year in, year out. They can’t get capacity. They may not come back’: “Welcome to Ariel House,” says Sean O’Driscoll with a firm handshake at the front door of the 37-bedroom property spread over three smartly appointed Victorian town houses on Lansdowne Road, just yards away from the Aviva Stadium. The property is managed by Cliste on behalf of the proprietor, Jennie McKeown and her family, who own Kilsaran concrete.
Top Sports news
- Ireland locked and loaded for long-awaited Scotland showdown: Ever since the Rugby World Cup schedule was announced way back in February 2021, Pool B always seemed destined to come down to this Saturday night’s Celtic shoot-out in Paris, and so it has come to pass
- Ireland v Scotland: Kick off time, TV channel and team news ahead of Rugby World Cup showdown: Everything you need to know about Ireland’s crucial final Pool B game
- Euro 2028 comes to the rescue of much put-upon Casement Park project: There is a certain irony in the key role played by international rugby and soccer tournaments in the development of GAA infrastructure. In 2012 there was an agreement to make venues available to the IRFU to support the bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, currently taking place in France.
Martyn Turner
Letters to the Editor
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Sir, – Malachy Clerkin gives us an excellent analysis on the forthcoming announcements regarding the joint bid for Euro 2028. While major discussions will take place around the availability of Casement Park, should more concern be focused on Wembley stadium being chosen for the final, and if that venue is prepared, in light of previous episodes of chaos during the Euro 2020 final, which was described in an independent review of the events as a “day of national shame”? – Yours, etc,
PAT SAVAGE, Drogheda, Co Louth.
- Inside Politics: Will ‘common sense’ policies revive Rishi Sunak’s Tories?: Plus, the economic mood music darkens ahead of Budget Day
Review of the day
- Elon Musk: The confusing, bizarre life of a risk-seeking billionaire: The specifics of Elon Musk’s arrival on planet Earth are laid out in vivid detail on page 16 of this mammoth exploration of what reads like a wild but hollow 50 years of gambolling by the sun king of the tech revolution, writes Keith Duggan.
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