British Chancellor Gordon Brown's Budget has been given the thumbs down by businesses in Northern Ireland tonight.
The Ulster Society of Chartered Accountants said it contained very little for business in the province. Chairman Mr John Hannaway said: "Overall this was a disappointing Budget for Northern Ireland.
"The local business community has made repeated calls for regional incentives and tailor-made fiscal policies aimed at boosting the local economy but these have fallen on deaf ears."
The missed opportunity, combined with the potential of job cuts in the public sector, would have a negative impact on Northern Ireland, he said.
There were some minor plus points but overall it was not what local business needed.
"Gordon did not serve up a tonic but rather a pint of flat beer which, like Irish stout, will need some time to get to the bottom of."
The Federation of Small Business criticised what it called the Chancellor's U-turn on small company taxation, which it believed undermined his welcome moves on payroll and inspection regimes for small firms.
Finance spokesman Mr John Hurson said: "It is amazing how quickly a concession to encourage enterprise can become a loophole.
"This move will hit ordinary family businesses hardest when it is the loopholes exploited by the rich that cost the Exchequer money."
In the 2002 Budget, Mr Brown announced changes to corporation tax which provoked a rush of self-employed individuals to incorporate in order to take advantage of the tax break, he said.
"It is now unfair of the Chancellor to retaliate with a 19 per cent distributive tax, when this rush was entirely predictable," said Mr Hurson.
PA