A FIVE year tax plan can be implemented with two new rates of 40 per cent and 20 per cent, the leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, has predicted.
The new rates could be introduced during the lifetime of a fresh agreement between the social partners, she said.
Speaking after a meeting yesterday with the executive of the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU), whose members are in dispute with the Government over low pay, Ms Harney said a more dynamic public service required tax reform for those at lower levels "who feel their plight has been ignored up to now".
"Apart altogether from their immediate grievances, low paid public servants feel they've been badly let down by successive social partnership deals," she said.
The last Budget had done nothing to ease the tax burden on the lower paid a public servant earning £12,000 benefited by just 87p in take home pay.
"Is it any wonder the CPSU membership views a successor to the PCW (Programme for Competitiveness and Work) with such scepticism?" Ms Harney added.