Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said the Government's objective in the budget will be to reward people who get up early and work hard all week.

“Our perspective as a Government in the last budget, and will be in the next budget, is to ensure that work pays for people who get up early in the morning and go out and do a hard week’s work and take home a reasonable portion of that.”

He said people on modest incomes should be able to take home as much of that income as possible.

“We want to have a very sharp focus on work paying,” he said

"But obviously the maintenance from a Labour Party perspective of a decent tax base to fund quality public services will remain a focus for me."