Political reaction:Fine Gael has described Mr Cowen's first Budget as "crafty, cunning and fundamentally flawed."
The party's spokesman on finance, Mr Richard Bruton told the Dáil: "This was a cunning Budget to press the right buttons and bury the legacy of Charlie McCreevy."
"It is a Budget pretending to say sorry but the key test is will it really change people's lives. Against that standard it will not succeed. All that glitters is not gold."
Mr Bruton was particularly critical of the changes to the tax bands. He pointed out that while those on the minimum wage of €273 have been taken out of the tax bracket, they will fall into it again next April when the minimum wage increases.
He also questioned whether the increase in health spending will see any improvement in services and called for real reform in the health service.
Comparing Mr Cowen to Santa Claus, Mr Bruton said he came with "gifts that had been nicked from the same families in the last two years."
He acknowledged the cuts to income tax but questioned whether they would even match inflation. What is more interesting according to Mr Bruton is the increase in stealth taxes on utilities and new services, which he said had increased by €2,250 for the average family since the governments election in May 2002.
"It is the same old package wrapped up a bit more slickly."
He welcomed the reduction in stamp duty for first-time buyers of second-hand houses but, given the rate at which house prices are increasing, only a small band of purchasers will benefit, a contention which the Taoiseach Mr Ahern disagreed vocally with.
Touching on one of Fine Gael's favourite themes - "rip-off Ireland" - Mr Bruton said that there had been a 60 per cent rise in the consumer price index over the last three years.
He claimed that the Government has no credibility when it comes to reducing prices given that it is one of the main beneficiaries thanks to the increased tax-take.
Labour Party spokeswoman on finance, Ms Joan Burton, said the Budget had failed to live up the Government "hype", and with the sole exception of the section on disability, did not contain any new thinking.
She was critical that middle income earners were not taken out of the top tax bracket.
"In fact, there are still 25,000 people more on the top tax rate than on the standard rate, and the proportion of people on the higher rate will actually go up," said Ms Burton.
Describing it as a Budget of "goodies, not strategy" she said that many key areas had been neglected.
"There is nothing for carers; the bare minimum for children; a meagre share of our national prosperity for pensioners; nothing to alleviate the crisis in A&E, to put extra Gardai on the streets, or teachers in our schools," she said.
"And the Minister has shirked the job of confronting the vested interests that enjoy so many tax breaks."
While she said there were some reforms in the Budget that would help create a fairer society but claimed the Budget continued to preside over tax breaks which benefited the rich.
"He has undone some and only some of that damage today, but let him not stand there and bask in any great measure of self-satisfaction, for giving back what his Government took by stealth in the first instance," said Ms Burton.
She was also critical that this Budget did not introduce a carbon tax, one of the final decisions of former Minister for Finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy, and said Mr Cowen would be forced to address it in the future.
"We either take the initiative to handle this issue ourselves or change will be forced on us from the outside either by international obligation or from the sheer force of the physical realities of climate change," she said.
Ms Burton also said any improvements in social welfare would be offset by the loss of medical cards and rent allowances.
She accused the Government of presiding over a litany of broken promises relating to medical cards, additional gardaí, nurses and teachers, increasing child benefit, and overseas development aid.
While welcoming the €14-a-week increase in social welfare payments, Green Party finance spokesperson, Mr Dan Boyle, said that many previous social welfare cuts remained in place.
He also said that the Government had particularly failed in the area of childcare and said that it remained to be seen whether the increase in expenditure on disability would go far enough.
"Disability is obviously this year's decentralisation. It is interesting to note that the increase under multi-annual funding is less than the additional monies that will continue to be given for the discredited decentralisation programme."