Government ‘should run the full term’ before holding general election – McGrath

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

The Government should run a full term before holding a general election next year, the Minister for Finance has said.

Michael McGrath said he would prefer to call the public to the polls this time next year amid ongoing speculation about if and when an early election would be called.

The coalition could run into February next year, allowing for an election to be called as late as March 2025.

Mr McGrath said he believed a show of political stability was “an important message” during engagements with multinational executives.

The Finance Minister said: “My own view is that we should run the full term.”

But Mr McGrath said the calling of an election was a matter for the Taoiseach in consultation with the coalition party leaders.

He said: “We could go to the polls next month, but I don’t think it would be the right thing to do.”

He added: “I think Government should – except for unforeseen events – run their full term.

“And I know there’ll be lots of articles about tactics and when the election should be and so on but at its simplest level: You commit to serving a full term, I think you should serve the full term.

“You give an to the people of what you have done, and where you think you can do better, and people will hold you to or give their verdict.

“But I do think the world in which we live, political stability is very attractive.”

The Finance Minister is due to deliver another Budget later this year.

In last year’s Budget, the middle rate of Universal Social Charge was reduced by 0.5 per cent and the income tax credit was increased by €100.

The minister also raised the threshold for the standard rate tax band.

Mr McGrath has said it is a commitment of the Government to further “reduce the burden of personal taxation”.

He told RTÉ’s Today With Claire Byrne: “The lens that I look at this through is the need for us to have a competitive personal taxation system.”

He said: “What I’m committing to is that there will be a further substantial income tax package in the Budget in the autumn.

“The value of what we did in the Budget last October – which only took effect at the beginning of the year – was about one-and-a-half billion euro in a full year.

“Now, every year in the Budget, we provide much more funding for expenditure increases.

“So the allocation for expenditure is a multiple of what it is in the taxation front.

“We will have scope because we do have an economy now that has reached over 2.7 million people at work, which is the highest number ever.

“We actually added about 90,000 people in the last 12 months and if you look at where we were immediately pre-Covid, not only have we regained all those jobs that were lost in Covid, but we’re actually about 330,000 more in of number of people at work.”