The forthcoming budget must be “Brexit-proofed”, strengthening personal and corporation tax competitiveness, protecting tourism and regional employment and helping exporters to diversify their markets, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny will tell a gathering of business leaders on Thursday evening.
Mr Kenny will tell the annual dinner of the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce that he has asked Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe to ensure that the budget is "shaped by, and addresses, the challenges resulting from Brexit, and to set out a national economic response".
The Government is also expected to approve the establishment of a cabinet sub-committee on Brexit at its meeting on Thursday morning.
Later, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan will meet the British secretary of state for Brexit David Davis for talks which are expected to focus on - Northern Ireland, the border, the Common Travel area and economic/trading links.
Mr Davis will also attend the British-Irish Chamber dinner on Thursday evening with the Taoiseach.
Mr Kenny is delivering a series of speeches on the Government’s response to Brexit and its economic strategy for the future in the coming days. After Thursday night’s speech, he will travel to Oxford tomorrow for a meeting of the British-Irish Association in Oxford and next week he will address IBEC members at the organisations’s annual president’s dinner.
“The gains we have made as a country are hard won and fragile,” Mr Kenny will tell the British-Irish dinner. “In charting the course ahead, we must continue to be mindful of the mistakes of the past and the lessons we must learn from them.”
The Taoiseach will also stress the need for realism in the coming weeks as interest groups and ministers make their pitches for extra resources in the budget.
“In the weeks ahead there will be intense political and parliamentary debate about the best use of the limited resources.
“If the stronger economy and public finances now allow us to make some choices as a people, the rising international risks remind us that our choices must be good ones, capable of delivering both a just and fair society and a secure and stable economy. Not all good suggestions will be affordable in the next 12 months but with continued economic recovery we will, in turn, be able to continue implementing sensible and effective reforms and initiatives.”
