WORKPLACE RESPONSE:TRADE UNION leaders have criticised the Budget and have warned that it could wipe out the extra increase negotiated for the lower paid in the recent national pay deal.
Employers' group Ibec said it welcomed some of the measures but that it would have preferred a greater emphasis on cutting current expenditure rather than on increasing taxation.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) said that the Budget showed "little evidence of social solidarity and will result in working families shouldering the biggest share of the burden".
Ictu general secretary David Begg said that the imposition of the 1 per cent levy was arbitrary and indiscriminate and would hit the lower paid disproportionately.
He said that it was utterly unreasonable for the Government to have applied the levy only to PAYE workers.
He said that for it to have been equitable, it should have applied to all income, including business profits.
Mr Begg criticised the rise in VAT as a further attack on the lowest paid and the most vulnerable.
Mr Begg also said that the Budget had failed the "equality test" insofar as it made no effort to target millionaires who paid little or no tax, while it contained some very worrying stealth charges, including a "shocking" 50 per cent rise in the cost of visiting AE from €66 to €100.
He added that the rise in social welfare of €6.50 was inadequate.
Ibec director general Turlough O'Sullivan said that business recognised the need to take corrective measures to stabilise the public finances.
He said that Ibec welcomed the significant capital investment programme, the improvement in the research and development tax credit scheme, the emphasis on increasing education spending and the supports for energy efficiency measures in industry.
However, he said Ibec was disappointed that the Government did not address the Budget deficit more fully.
Ibec was also disappointed that the Government had increased taxation on work, investment, savings and on consumption; that it had not been more determined in its efforts to reduce the public service pay bill; and that it had brought forward the payment dates for corporation tax.
The Small Firms Association said that the Budget has increased taxes, failed to reduce expenditure and provided for no public sector reform.
The business group Isme said it had done little to reward entrepreneurial activity or promote risk-taking at the individual small firm level.
The country's largest union Siptu said that the 1 per cent levy was "a crude instrument that disregarded the principle of ability to pay and would inflict further hardship on those on middle to lower incomes".
The trade union Unite said the Budget would hit hardest those who could least afford it.
The largest public sector union, Impact, described the Budget as "rough" but said that it should not influence the way its members voted in the current ballot on a new national pay deal.