Private pension tax reliefs, worth significantly in excess of €2.75 billion, should be phased out, Sinn Féin has urged, while extra money should be spent on State pensions.
Sinn Féin has also proposed that the minimum wage should be increased to €9.30 per hour, or 60 per cent of the projected average industrial wage for 2007, while all those earning it should be exempt from tax.
Social welfare rates should jump by over €1 billion next year alone, while the State old age pension should be increased by €34.80, and child benefit by €10 each month, argued Sinn Féin in its pre-Budget submission.
Asked if the tax reliefs should be cut on all, or some, pensions, SF Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said: "It should be phased out across the board. We believe that this is a necessary reform." The average income of those investing in private pensions in 2002, - the latest year for which figures are available - is €67,119, or over 2½ times average industrial earnings at the time, according to the Department of Finance.
The €200 State pension, if reached, is still not "an adequate target where the goal is to enable older people to have sufficient income to live", the Sinn Féin Budget document, Putting Low Income Families First, declared.
A non-means tested State pension, following the Finnish example, funded by the Exchequer would "be progressive, redistributive and would ensure independent pensions for all men and women", the party argued.
The minimum wage, introduced in April 2000, was "the one significant measure to tackle low-pay that was introduced", but its effect has weakened over time.
In 2000, the £4.40 rate set then represented 54 per cent of average industrial earnings, though by June 2006 it had fallen to just 50.83 per cent.
