Tánaiste 'not aware' of plans to accelerate budget bills in advance of calling general election
He Micheál The Plans Passing Said Tánaiste Finance Not Of The Any To And Aware Of Social Was Welfare Martin Bills Accelerate
The Tánaiste says he was not informed about the accelerating of supplementary estimates, a move which has put ministers on alert an election is coming.
Some departments were asked on Wednesday to tell the Department of Public Expenditure how much extra money they will need this year, a process which is not usually undertaken until November.
One senior minister told the the move "could only mean one thing"— Taoiseach Simon Harris is preparing to call an election.
Speaking in Carlow on Thursday morning, Micheál Martin, however, said he was not in the loop on the move, nor was he aware of any plans to accelerate the passing of the Finance and Social Welfare bills, which give legal standing to Tuesday's budget.
The decision to accelerate the supplementary estimates has been privately criticised by some in Fianna Fáil, with one senior source saying it was "silly" and questioning whether it would be possible to speed up the passing of the estimates and two bills without incurring major criticism.
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"You'd have the opposition saying that we told people it wasn't an election budget and then going straight to the polls," a Fianna Fáil TD said.
Another questioned whether the Taoiseach was actually planning on calling an election or if he was simply "testing the waters".
Asked by the if he had been consulted on the moves, Mr Martin said he and Finance Minister Jack Chambers had not.
"No, I wasn't aware of any acceleration of supplementary estimates," he said.
"Also [I want to] make the point that there is no acceleration of the Finance Bill. The Minister for Finance certainly wasn't aware of what was contained in [reports], and he's going in accordance with the schedule.
"The publication of the bill is similar to last year, so he's working in accordance with the schedule that has been laid down in respect to the Finance Bill."
Mr Martin once again repeated his belief the Government should go the distance to next February, saying there were many bills still to be passed by this Dáil.
"My view is we have work to do in Government. We should complete our work programme. And that involves the Finance Bill, the Social Protection Bill, but it also involves the Gambling Bill, the Mental Health Bill, Planning Bill, and the Defamation Bill, and we have a tight schedule in the autumn to get that done.
"We should get that legislative programme done, do our work, finish our work, and then we can let the people decide."