TRANSPORT MINISTER DARRAGH O’BRIEN has said that the Government will be “fully mindful of the economic situation” when putting together the upcoming Budget.

It follows reports in today’s Sunday papers that Tánaiste Simon Harris and his Fine Gael party’s junior minister Neil Richmond believe that a more restricted Budget may be on the cards if a harsh tariff rate from the US president is maintained.

Donald Trump yesterday threatened to impose a 30% tariff on the European Union by 1 August in the latest escalation of the his on-again, off-again trade war.

Certain measures to alleviate cost of living strains, such as one-off payments, were dismissed by Harris. In the Sunday Independent today, the Fine Gael leader said that it was important for Ireland to “move away from running a country on the basis of ‘will the Government give me something temporary in September or October’”, to the idea of “structural change” instead.

This mood was bolstered by Richmond telling the paper in light of the latest tariff threat that a “flurry of demands to empty the State’s savings funds for a range of one-off and current spending ideas” would “irresponsible” for the Government to do in October.

Another member of the Cabinet, Transport and Climate Minister O’Brien, didn’t quash the idea when speaking today, but the Fianna Fáil TD attempted to make it appear that any restricted spending was already well flagged by Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

“During the general election campaign, my party leader and the Taoiseach was very clear to say that obviously any budgets we bring forward are fully mindful of the economic situation at the time, but really our focus as a government between the Taoiseach and Tánaiste and all of my colleagues, is working with our European Union partners to conclude an arrangement that can allow us to continue to trade,” he told RTÉ’s This Week radio programme.

O’Brien said the last number of months have created “uncertainty” across the EU and the United States, which he said was “not good for the economy”, particularly in relation to private sector business decisions.

On this, O’Brien added that investment “in many areas has been paused”, before saying that he does not want to “catastrophize the situation” either.

The minister said that he would “sincerely hope” that the current impasse does not become a full-blown trade war.

“I think the Taoiseach has been very clear as well in really setting out that we want respectful dialogue to continue. There is still time in this space the EU and the US enjoy the biggest economic relationship. It’s good for both blocs.”