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The Public Expenditure Minister has said “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” amid a division on stamp duty ahead of the Budget.

Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he has a “favourable disposition” towards scrapping stamp duty for first-time buyers.

However, his Fine Gael counterpart and Tánaiste Simon Harris pushed back on the proposals on Wednesday.

He said there were no proposals around stamp duty in the programme for government.

Mr Harris, who will deliver his first Budget as Finance Minister on October 6, said: “Therefore, at this moment in time, I am not proposing bringing forward such measures.”

Fianna Fáil’s deputy leader Jack Chambers said it was “healthy” to have “different perspectives” on the Budget.

On Thursday, Mr Chambers who will be delivering the Budget alongside Mr Harris as Public Expenditure Minister said: “Look, we’re very early days in the tax package and it’s important to give all ministers and indeed both our respective parliamentary parties the space to engage in the budgetary process.”

He added: “What we’ve predominantly done thus far is focused on the income tax side, which by itself the Tánaiste and others have been clear about.

“So look, we’ve a number of weeks to go before the Budget, and we have to conclude all matters relating to the tax package some relate to income tax, some relate to the enterprise side, and also on inheritance tax as well, and see what’s possible within the 1.5 billion euro allocation.

“And you know there are different perspectives on that. I’m not going to insert myself into that more generally, except to say that we have a long way to go.”

Asked how the negotiations would work in the remaining weeks, Mr Chambers said: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

“We’re in very early days in the budgetary process, and we all work extremely well together when it comes to kind of concluding matters on the taxation side, and also trying to settle the broader expenditure priorities across Government as well.”

Mr Martin had told reporters at the Fianna Fáil think-in earlier this week that the issue “still falls for discussion”.

Mr Harris said: “There’s a finite amount we have in the tax package.

“We’ve been clear that the priority this year will be personal income tax, but there will be many, many ways in which we’ll be looking to really stimulate housing supply in the Budget.”

He said housing would remain a “priority” in the Budget, adding: “We did last year take measures on the tax side in relation to housing and stimulating supply.

“We took a conscious decision to do that. We also said when we did that that that would be it in terms of tax.”