Micheál Martin has confirmed that the cash to pay for the winter cost of living package will come from the taxpayer and not an energy companies windfall tax.
But the good news is that the Government will be sitting on a tax surplus of €6billion for the Budget, giving it plenty of scope to go beyond the original €1billion budgeted for the cost of living package.
Mr Martin said that this surplus is where “the real firepower” will come from for the Budget.
The surplus includes taxes both from ordinary people and buoyant corporate tax returns.
It was hoped in Government circles that a Europe-wide windfall tax on energy company profits could deliver hundreds of millions - or billions - of euros to the Exchequer in time for the Budget.
The estimated take across the EU will be €140billion according to European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, on Wednesday.
This is still possible, but the Taoiseach said that this slush fund would not be accessible until next year, most likely from around next March.
This means that the promised energy rebates, price caps on bills and other supports being teased to us as part of the upcoming cost of living package will have to come from our own surplus we, the taxpayers, have paid into.
Mr Martin said: “We were never going to be dependent on that revenue stream (the windfall tax) as the key to the package that we will be introducing in the next two weeks.”
“The real firepower is in the surplus that we have right now to enable us to get through the first phase of this crisis.
“And we have to be conscious of early Spring and the the revenue from that measure that Europe will introduce can be helpful in the medium term.”
Mr Martin was speaking at the opening of a Penneys store in Tallaght.
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