The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has called on the Government to increase personal allowances by at least £900 a year in the Budget. It also wants tax relief for working parents to help them to meet the cost of child-care facilities, and a crackdown on accountants and other professionals who connive at tax evasion.
These are among the main proposals in the ICTU's Budget submission to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, yesterday. The ICTU will meet Mr McCreevy next Wednesday to discuss the proposals in detail.
The general secretary of congress, Mr Peter Cassells, said that an increase of £900 in personal tax free allowances would boost the earnings of a worker on the average industrial wage of £300 a week by £8. In the interests of equity, people earning £1,000 a week would also benefit by £8 a week.
The assistant general secretary, Ms Patricia O'Donovan, said a significant proportion of the increased allowances should be targeted at increasing the PAYE allowance. This currently stands at £800 a year and has not been raised since 1988.
Mr Cassells warned the Government that the trade unions expected it to honour commitments made in Partnership 2000. Increased tax allowances would underpin wage restraint and would not fuel inflation - as tax cuts to the better off were likely to do.
Mr Cassells also called for a statutory code of conduct to cover accountants. There had been promises of voluntary reforms following the beef tribunal, but the revelations from the McCracken tribunal proved that the profession was incapable of putting its house in order. As part of the statutory code, accountants and auditors should be obliged to report all cases of fraud and tax evasion.
Congress wants a special investigation team to examine offshore accounts in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man. There should be a "fast track" division of the courts to deal with cases involving breaches of the tax laws. Social inclusion was the other major area in which the ICTU made proposals. It said the Government should bring all rates of social welfare into line with the minimum scales set by the 1986 Commission on Social Welfare.
It renewed its call for a national minimum wage of £5 an hour, and said the ceiling on eligibility for Family Income Supplements should be raised to take account of the new minimum rate. It called for a guarantee of a job or training for school-leavers and for 10,000 extra full-time places on Community Employment Schemes.