The Budget's tax provisions aimed at the low paid highlighted the need to introduce a minimum wage immediately, the Mandate trade union, which represents 35,000 workers in the retail and bar trades, said yesterday.

General secretary Mr Owen Nulty said the removal of more than 80,000 people, earning between £79 and £100 per week from the tax net, illustrated that the State remained a two-tiered society of haves and have-nots.