A "wide range" of tax breaks available to the wealthy should be restricted or eliminated in the next Budget, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has said.
In a pre-Budget submission published yesterday, Congress claimed PAYE workers were shouldering too great a share of the tax burden.
Calling for a Budget that promotes fairness, it said public spending was currently too low to achieve European levels of "quality social services".
Revenue, it said, could be increased in a number of ways without raising the personal taxation of the PAYE sector.
Corporation tax, for example, could be held at 16 per cent instead of being reduced to 12.5 per cent, as planned by the Government.
Employers who did not contribute to funded pension schemes for their employees should have their PRSI contributions increased, the submission said.
Employees, it pointed out, already paid a 2 per cent health levy on their income.
"Business should pay a similar 2 per cent health levy to help fund the (Government's) health strategy."
Finally, it suggested the restriction or elimination of a range of tax breaks currently availed of by the wealthy, including tax exiles, property investors, artists and those involved in the bloodstock industry.
Mr David Begg, the general secretary of Congress, said unions did not deny that the State's low corporation tax had attracted foreign direct investment.
The Congress submission, he pointed out, proposed tax credits for companies engaging in research and development which would provide the equivalent of a 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate.
This would also, however, encourage them to deepen their roots in Ireland.
Congress said that when the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, announced his intention in 1998 to move towards a 12.5 per cent rate, he undertook to introduce "clawback" measures from the corporate sector.
"However, this never happened. On the contrary, further relief was introduced in Budget 2002 with the introduction of employers' PRSI from 12 per cent to 10.5 per cent at a cost of €347 million to the Exchequer in a full year."
Congress also wants the Government to take all of those on the minimum wage out of the tax net, improve redundancy payments, improve access to medical cards and make explicit how it intends to reach the UN target of contributing 0.7 per cent of GNP to overseas development by 2007.
Other demands include measures to address housing, childcare and public transport shortcomings.