The 1999 budget could have a surplus as high as £1 billion, the Irish secretary of MSF, Mr John Tierney, told delegates. This surplus should be used to give tax relief to those on below-average incomes and make increased provision for infrastructural investment.
He calculated that 60 per cent of the tax gains in the last budget went to "owners of wealth and above-average salary earners".
The £1 billion surplus is based on the union's calculations, which has a good record on economic trends.
Mr Tierney said the last budget had seen tax cuts worth £517 million go to the PAYE and self-employed sectors. "Most of this money went to the highest income groups. People on a salary of £100,000 a year made tax savings of £43 a week. Those with a gross income of £20,000 came out just £10 a week better off, while low paid workers on £10,000 year gained a mere £5 per week.
"The wealthiest sectors of all gained £120 million in tax cuts - capital gains tax will cost £20 million and the reductions in corporation profits tax will cost £100 million in a full year."
While the Government may have adhered to the letter of the tax commitments in Partnership 2000, "they were most definitely in breach of the spirit of that agreement on tax reform".
"In concentrating the biggest rewards among the most well-off, the Government is also breaching the whole thrust of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy. This strategy aims to reduce the numbers of those who are consistently poor from as much as 15 per cent of the population now to between five and 10 per cent by 2007."
He urged the Minister for Finance "to honour his promise to correct the inequitable balance of the last budget by focusing tax improvements on the average and below-average income groups; and by moving all social welfare recipients above the minimum adequate rate, as defined by the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
"We do not advocate that all of the budget surplus should be spent on tax cuts and social welfare increases. Provision must be made for the future when EU funds will diminish after 1999. The present boom will not last forever. We will have to start investing more of our own Exchequer resources in our infrastructure - on public transport, on science and technology, on education and infrastructure."