ReactionThe Green Party spokesman on finance, Mr Dan Boyle, claimed that many of the "savage sixteen" social welfare cuts remained following the Budget.

Mr Boyle said that the €14 a week increase in social welfare allowed the Government to fulfil its commitment under sustaining progress. "The Green Party, along with the Society of St Vincent de Paul, an organisation that has seen demand for its services increase by 300 per cent in the past two years, called for a €15 a week increase, and, admittedly, the Government's proposal came close. However, many of the 'savage sixteen' remain."

Mr Boyle said that after seven years the Minister might have finally removed those only earning the minimum wage from the tax net, but maintaining unfair tax reliefs, which allowed millionaires to avoid paying any tax whatsoever, was obscene.

The Government had disappointed on the issue of childcare, he said, adding that the child dependent allowance, which was vital for social welfare recipients and frozen since 1994, seemed once again to have been forgotten about.

"Expenditure on disability has been significantly increased and rightly so. Whether it goes as far as it should after years of underinvestment, remains to be seen," he said.

Mr Arthur Morgan (SF, Louth) said the Budget was a very belated admission that Budgets since 1997 had failed to address gross inequality, eliminate poverty and protect the disadvantaged and people with special needs. "If some of these are being addressed now, we welcome that, but it could and should have been from day one back in 1997," he said. "Seven years of McCreevyite economics have deepened the inequalities in Irish society," said Mr Morgan. "Instead of using unprecedented resources to redistribute wealth and close the poverty gap, this Government has worsened social and economic inequality in every Budget since 1997."

Mr Séamus Healy (Independent, Tipperary South) said there was a deeply divided society. "The gap between the rich and poor has widened each year," he said.

He added that 6,000 children lived in consistent poverty, with a further 237,000 children living in relative poverty, and 700,000 people were at risk from poverty.

"Relative poverty has been on the increase steadily over the past seven Budgets," said Mr Healy.