Two days after the Tynwald presentation, David Ashford is still in the thick of his first Budget week as Treasury Minister when I sit down with him in the Members’ Room for a chat.

He is reflecting on his change of role. He says: ’From the Department of Health, one of the biggest spending departments of government, I’ve gone to the department that’s having to find out how to pay for it all so it’s a bit of a change there.’

Strictly speaking though, this first Budget is not entirely ’his’, as he explains: ’People sometimes forget that the Budget process starts around July and August time so, with MHKs not elected till September and the new administration coming in mid to late October, an awful lot of the prep work for the Budget we’ve just announced was done under the old administration.

’So the first Budget of any administration is always what I would term a "hybrid" budget where you’ve got a lot of the legacy of the previous administration and then you’ve got bits you’ve managed to fit in or adapt.

’The prime example of this is the Climate Change Fund, which is very much a piece of this new administration to try and meet our climate change targets.’

So what was in the Budget that was very much his priority?

He says: ’One of them, and it’s probably won’t come as a surprise, is the Carer’s Allowance. When I was Minister for DHSC I constantly said that we needed to do something [for carers].

’And, while I fully recognise that a 15% increase in Carer’s Allowance isn’t going to fix the world, what it is doing is indicating a direction of travel.

’We need to look at the support packages we have in place to support carers in general, because there are people out there who are putting their own lives on hold to try and help others and we need to be sure that we can help them to be able to do that.’

I suggest that the idea of a more equal society generally seems to be a focus for this administration?

Mr Ashford agrees: ’Very much so, to ensure that all parts of society are supported.

’All the work that’s going on around that phrase of ’levelling up’, which is very popular in the UK, and dealing with all parts of society - that actually benefits business. Because, if you have a society that’s moving forward as a whole, and you have a workforce that has money in their pocket, and spending power, then you end up with a more vibrant economy. And that is something that then allows business to flourish as well.’

He goes on: ’It’s about opportunity and one of the things from a business point of view that we’ve got to keep an eye on at the moment is that we’ve got a pretty historically low unemployment rate.

’So 0.7% registered unemployed sounds great, and it is great, but it also comes with problems because it means that you don’t have a huge skill base out there for businesses to be able to tap into. You run the risk of a skills shortage where businesses can’t get the employees or the skills that they require.

’And that can actually cause detriment to the business, and businesses deciding to move elsewhere, so we need to be doing lots of work around attracting people into the island.’

I ask Mr Ashford about Treasury support for business now that the ’Covid era’ is coming to an end?

He says: ’One of the things it’s important to remember is, yes, there’s been an awful lot of Covid business support that has helped a lot of businesses weather the pandemic who wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

’One of the interesting things is that our economy has proved very resilient, more so than many of our counterparts, so we’re in a much better place.

’But the important thing to point out is that, alongside that Covid support there’s other support for businesses as well.

’The Department for Enterprise has existing schemes, including the Micro Business Scheme and the Business Adaptation Scheme, and that support will not be going anywhere.

’The Budget has committed to continuing that so we’ve got support there for businesses if they need it, to be able to grow and adapt as well.’

Connectivity is a key element of the Digital Isle vision and the Budget included a commitment to the planned £6million spend for the fibre optic rollout programme as part of the National Broadband Plan.

Mr Ashford had this to say: ’We want high-speed fibre across as much of the island as possible. We’ve been working in partnership with Manx Telecom on that and there is investment from Manx Telecom as well, it’s not just all just purely taxpayer funded.

’Being a rural island there are some properties that are really off the beaten track and there will be a mix of other technologies there so we probably won’t get to 100%.

’But in terms of businesses we feel that connectivity is absolutely essential.

’If we are going to help businesses to flourish in the modern world where everything is interconnected, we have to be a major part of that interconnection.’

So what, I ask him, did it feel like, actually standing up and presenting his first Budget?

’It’s a surreal experience,’ he says.

And he goes on: ’To be perfectly honest I’ve sat through a few Budgets: even before I was an MHK I used to come into the public gallery for Budget Day, so I’ve sat through about 20 Budgets now, one way or another.

’And you never know which way it’s going to go, what your colleagues are really going to say on the floor in relation to it, or how it will go down with the public.

’Being Treasury Minister, there’s an awful lot of hope on you because there’s people out there that are really, really affected by the changes that are made in the Budget.

’It affects every single one of us in one way or another so as well as there being a lot of pressure it’s a great privilege to be able to do it.’