The overwhelming majority of voters want Brian Cowen to give top priority in next Wednesday's budget to putting more money into public services such as health and education rather than income tax cuts, according to The Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll.
Asked to rate five budgetary options in order of priority, 51 per cent opted for extra spending on health and education as the number one choice on the basis that Mr Cowen would have about €2 billion to give away in the upcoming budget. The next highest priority, with 16 per cent support, was cutting stamp duty to help first-time house buyers.
Third place with 14 per cent went to allocating more money for welfare payments, with this being a much bigger priority for voters over 65 and for Labour Party supporters than any other categories.
The fourth priority with the support of 11 per cent was a desire to see Mr Cowen widen the tax bands and increase tax credits to take more people off the top tax rate of 42 per cent. The lowest priority of the five offered, with just 6 per cent opting for it, was a reduction in the top rate of tax from 42 per cent to 40 per cent.
The poll findings will confirm Mr Cowen's strategy of focusing on the traditional Fianna Fáil priorities such as public spending and welfare payments, particularly pensions, rather than on tax cuts like his predecessor, Charlie McCreevy.
Tánaiste Michael McDowell can take some comfort that while voters do not appear very concerned about income tax rates, a significant proportion has been won over by his decision to rate stamp duty as a political priority.
The poll shows that this is now a big issue with younger voters aged between 18 and 34, who accord it a much higher priority than older people, reflecting the enormous financial pressures on them when it comes to buying a house.
The high priority accorded to improving public services will come as good news for the Opposition parties. Fine Gael voters give a higher priority to this issue than any other set of party supporters, reflecting the campaign waged by the party on the issue.
Stamp duty was the second highest ranked budgetary issue for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin supporters, but Labour voters put welfare payments as their second highest priority. By contrast Green and PD supporters give this level of priority to widening the tax bands and increasing credits so as to take people off the top income tax rate.
The bottom of the priority list for voters was the option of cutting the top rate from 42 per cent to 40 per cent. It appears that although there is a commitment in the Programme for Government to reduce the rate to 40 per cent and it is still a priority for the PDs, the voters are more concerned with other issues.
Poll shows tax cuts come a poor second in Budget priorities: page 8