The Government is introducing a new method of announcing budgetary measures from December.
Details of the changes were outlined by the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, who described them as a streamlining of the budgetary process and a major innovation.
All new spending measures and tax changes will be presented in a unified way on budget day on 5 December.
This will end the traditional process of publishing a book of spending estimates for each Government department in November.
Detailed pre-budget estimates will now be published in October. The estimates will set out the economic outlook for the next three years.
Mr Cowen said the changes would help the Government to manage public finances in a more transparent and effective manner.
In a separate development, the annual inflation rate fell to 4.8% last month, having increased to 5% in July.
According to figures just released by the Central Statistics Office, on a monthly basis consumer prices were up 0.5% in August.
Today's figures show that the annual pace of price growth of 4.8% fell to its lowest point since February, though in monthly terms inflation is up by 0.5%.
According to the CSO, housing costs continued to increase in the year to August, with prices for services like electricity gas and other fuels up by almost 22%.
Also over the year prices for alcohol and tobacco rose by 5.6% and education costs were 4.6% higher.
From July to August the most significant price increases were in clothing and footwear which went up by 5%, communications costs rose by 1.5%, while transport costs fell by 0.5%.
Inflation in August had been expected to fall a little below 5%, but looking ahead economists believe that inflation will rise again.
