The Government's Economic Management Council has begun discussions on next month's budget.
The high-level inner circle, which is made up of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, met yesterday to begin talks.
Minister Brendan Howlin said he will begin discussions with the rest of the Cabinet over the next two weeks.
Speaking as the Dáil returns from its summer recess, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform said no decisions have yet been made.
"Because we're constructing the budget much earlier than normal, we won't have as clear a data (sic) for the end of year as we would normally, in a December budget," he said.
"So we will make the structure of the budget on the basis of the best and latest data we can.
"We had an EMC yesterday, we began the outline discussion then, and I will be having discussions with cabinet colleagues throughout this week and next week."