The Cabinet reviewed the Finance Bill yesterday ahead of its publication tomorrow but made no changes in response to this week's censure by the European Union.
On Monday the Council of Ministers told the Government to take measures to counteract the expansionary nature of its 2001 Budget but the Finance Minister, Mr McCreevy has indicated that no action is planned. It is understood that a number of late refinements to the bill were considered yesterday. They centred on how to implement the saving incentive scheme promoted by the Tanaiste, Ms Mary Harney and Mr McCreevy.
This is expected to be done by way of an amendment to the bill that will be introduced at a later stage, but the outline of the scheme will be announced tomorrow.
Savers will effectively receive a matching contribution from the Government - by way of tax relief - towards funds put into new long-term saving plans.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)