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30/10/2007
Cowen Popular As Budget Decisions Loom
Finance Minister Brian Cowen is being kept busy by various groups – each lobbying for a break in the forthcoming 2008 Budget.
One of the latest to knock his door in advance of the December 5th Budget Day was the Combat Poverty Agency. It is calling on the Government to increase education grants for lower income groups in the upcoming budget.
The agency believes that this, combined with changes to the PRSI structure, could lead to an 8% reduction in the number of people at risk of poverty.
It says low-paid workers should be entitled to the same level of financial support in education as those receiving social welfare benefits.
Meanwhile, the Small Firms Association (SFA) also met the Finance Minister to urge him to set an inflation target of 2% in the next Budget, or at the very least to change how the rate of inflation is measured here.
The organisation claims that Irish inflation should be calculated by the EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, rather than the Consumer Price Index.
SFA chairman Pat Crotty said this would bring inflation down from 4.6% to 2.9%.
Mr Cowen has also been lobbied by the Irish Nursing Homes Association (INHO) which has appealed to the Government not to let older people become the main casualty of a tight Budget.
The group – which was holding its annual conference last week - fears that funding for Ireland's elderly population will be reduced in the upcoming Budget.
It says that current funding is as low as 0.6% of GDP, compared with a European average of 1%.
(BMcC)
One of the latest to knock his door in advance of the December 5th Budget Day was the Combat Poverty Agency. It is calling on the Government to increase education grants for lower income groups in the upcoming budget.
The agency believes that this, combined with changes to the PRSI structure, could lead to an 8% reduction in the number of people at risk of poverty.
It says low-paid workers should be entitled to the same level of financial support in education as those receiving social welfare benefits.
Meanwhile, the Small Firms Association (SFA) also met the Finance Minister to urge him to set an inflation target of 2% in the next Budget, or at the very least to change how the rate of inflation is measured here.
The organisation claims that Irish inflation should be calculated by the EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, rather than the Consumer Price Index.
SFA chairman Pat Crotty said this would bring inflation down from 4.6% to 2.9%.
Mr Cowen has also been lobbied by the Irish Nursing Homes Association (INHO) which has appealed to the Government not to let older people become the main casualty of a tight Budget.
The group – which was holding its annual conference last week - fears that funding for Ireland's elderly population will be reduced in the upcoming Budget.
It says that current funding is as low as 0.6% of GDP, compared with a European average of 1%.
(BMcC)
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