COMBAT Poverty has called on the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, to share the benefits of the current boom with those most in need.
The agency's pre-Budget submission, launched yesterday, contains a range of proposals including new employment measures for the long-term unemployed and a wide-ranging series of tax and welfare reforms.
The provision of a wage subsidy, for the long-term unemployed is a key plank of the submission. It argues that an incentive of £100 a week would be paid to employers for between 12 and 18 months to encourage them to recruit from the long-term unemployed. The subsidy would replace the PRSI exemption and the back-to-work allowance.
The agency also wants two new rates of employers' PRSI - 4 per cent for workers earning less than £115 a week and 8per cent for those on less than £231 a week. The changes would be paid for by removing the ceiling on employers' PRSI, making the reform self-financing, says the submission.
The lowest welfare rates should be increased to £65 a week and a commitment should be given to increase this to £68 next year, Combat Poverty argues. It also wants the standard tax and PRSI allowances increased to £71 each a week, and child benefits raised to £40 for the key months of August and December.
All tax allowances and reliefs should be restricted to the standard level, and all discretionary tax incentive schemes should have a social as well as economic benefit. The threshold for property tax should be increased to include all types of property, according to Combat Poverty.
In its pre-Budget submission, the Sales Marketing and Administrative Union of Ireland calls for an end to benefit-in-kind tax on its members for the use of cars, calling it a "punitive" tax on salespeople.