Budget ‘kites’ not agreed at Cabinet, Varadkar says

None of the measures in next month's budget which have been recently flagged by media have been agreed by Cabinet and some have not even been discussed at Cabinet, Leo Varadkar has said.

The Minister for Health said he had been criticised in the past for speculating on what might be in the budget.

Speaking to reporters at an event in Dublin on Saturday he noted lead stories in the newspapers which he described as “kite-flying” by some of his Cabinet colleagues.

“It’s been interesting to see so much kite-flying about the budget in the last couple of weeks. I remember being chided for doing something similar in previous years. Now I see my senior colleague doing it on an almost daily basis which is interesting to see.

“I think the best thing that should happen now is that the ministers should sit around the cabinet table and discuss the budget, and agree it…As things stand at the moment nothing that has been flagged in the newspapers or the media has actually been agreed yet, at the Cabinet table, or in some cases not even discussed.”

He was at Dublin Castle to open a ‘careers day’ for medical students approaching the end of the their basic medical training, and for interns. He described the event as “very important” to give these people information about the career and training options they should consider.

"It's really all about giving them more information about the career opportunities that are available to them in the years ahead and encouraging them to stay in Ireland and work in our public health service."

Asked about difficulties keeping medical graduates in the country, with long-standing complaints about pay, long hours and unsatisfying working conditions in the health service, he said things were beginning to turn around.

“We do have 140 more doctors on the payroll today than we had at the start of the year, 500 more nurses than we had this time last year so we are now actually going in the right direction again, notwithstanding the real challenges.

“There are things we can do to help. Pay restoration starts for junior doctors and for nurses in January. There will be full pay restoration for just about everyone by 2019 and that will make us competitive again with other English-speaking countries as will reductions in USC and tax and everything that’s coming in the budget.”