A 'populist' package, says Labour

LabourThe Budget is "populist" rather than "visionary" and one of "goodies, not of strategy", according to Labour's finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton.

She told the Dáil that the legacy of the former finance minister, Mr Charlie McCreevy, "runs right throughout this Budget. The stallions will be resting easy tonight as will the millionaires who pay no tax."

She said there would be some 19,000 more taxpayers paying tax at the higher or marginal rate after the Budget.

Reacting to the 45-minute speech by the Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen, the Labour spokeswoman said there were 614,000 or 32.6 per cent of taxpayers paying tax at the higher rate in 2004. "This year on post-Budget outcomes, 633,740 taxpayers will be paying at the higher rate, some 19,000 extra taxpayers."

The Dublin West TD described the measures as "some damage undone, a lot more to undo", in a reference to the Government's 2002 election slogan of "a lot done, more to do". She said that while it attempted to undo some of the damage of the past, it didn't go nearly far enough.

Referring to the address by Father Seán Healy of CORI to a special Fianna Fáil gathering at Inchydoney, Co Cork, during the summer, Ms Burton did not know if he'd be satisfied.

"One of the principal challenges that Father Healy set was payments to the poorest families with children - in particular child-dependant allowance. I don't see any mention of it anywhere, so I can only assume that it remains as it was. That's one down as far as Father Healy's wish list is concerned." This was "yet another budget of half-measures. The proposals announced today are in no way adequate as a response to the renewed opportunities of economic growth or the social inequalities that face our country at this time.

"An immense amount of damage was done in the past two Budgets and we might reasonably have expected this new Minister to repair that damage and restore justice to the tax code and a genuine shift of resources to people who have been neglected through all the years of our prosperity."

Ms Burton said the Budget contained many "grand promises" on capital spending, but "when the gloss is stripped away, it amounts to very little of new money, new projects or new ideas".

Although she welcomed the widening of the standard rate bands and credits, which will take those on the minimum wage out of the tax net, she added that the Budget was "quite minimalist in its tax reforms and social measures" and "only someone schooled from birth in Fianna Fáil arrogance would dare suggest this is a reforming Budget".