The Budget is fundamentally flawed because it betrays the poorest people in society, according to a briefing document by the Council of Religious in Ireland.
The document, to be presented to Government at a meeting of the social partners on Thursday, urges the Government to reverse the wrong it has done and increase social welfare payments.
Programme for Prosperity and Fairness commitments to increase social welfare rates in line with rises in inflation were not honoured in the Budget, according to the document. It also says the PPF has failed because social welfare has not increased in line with economic growth.
"We trusted the social partnership process and it has failed to honour the aims and objectives of the PPF, and the Government has to rectify that," said Father Sean Healy, director of the CORI Justice Commission.
But a spokeswoman for the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs said the Minister, Mr Ahern, was satisfied the PPF had been complied with. A benchmarking and indexation group had been set up to look at social welfare rates. There was a commitment in the PPF to increase the lowest social welfare payment to £100, which would involve an increase of £24 over the next three years. The recent budgetary increases were in line with this, she said.
The CORI wants a weekly increase of £14 for a single person on social welfare and £24 a week for couples. The Budget increased weekly social welfare payments for single people by £8 and £15 for couples. Raising social welfare by £6 and £9 would cost £150 million annually, according to the briefing document. This money could be raised by not reducing the top rate of tax by 2 per cent, which would cost £163 million, it adds.
A meeting today of the CORI and the other groups in the community and voluntary pillar of the social partners would review the budgetary provisions ahead of Thursday's meeting, Father Healy said.