The Budget had targeted the wealthy "and treated the rest with a scattergun", the Democratic Left spokesman on finance, Mr Pat Rabbitte, claimed. If one was in the high earning bracket and concerned with capital gains tax, then it was not just payback time but kickback time, he said. "No less than £315 million of the tax package is frittered away in rate reductions to mollify the Progressive Democrats and their high-earner supporters," Mr Rabbitte added.
Mr Rabbitte said the Minister had defied the consensus painfully won amongst the different interest groups and economic institutes that the greatest proportion of his bountiful inheritance should go towards dramatically increasing personal tax free allowances and towards widening the tax band.
A paltry £250 (£500 for married couples) was allocated to personal allowances and a derisory increase of £100 (£200 for married couples) in the standard tax band. "This is a pathetic and cruel deception for those in the electorate earning roughly average industrial earnings," he added.
Mr Rabbitte said that the Celtic Tiger economy was creating a permanent underclass excluded from the benefits of economic growth.
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