The president of SIPTU, Mr Jimmy Somers, has criticised the pre-Budget submission from the employers' group, IBEC, as an attempt to undermine tax reform and a rolling back on social welfare and community employment commitments under Partnership 2000.

Mr Somers said that IBEC wished to divert attention away from its own responsibility for the low-pay problem by saying firms felt they were competing with the social welfare system and that the tax/social welfare system was the biggest problem when recruiting staff.