Mr Barry Coleman is managing director of Finance Matters, a 10-year-old pension consultancy firm. His priorities were capital acquisitions and inheritance taxes and reducing the high cost of labour.
In general, Mr Coleman supported Mr McCreevy's proposals - with reservations. "On the tax side it's fabulous to see the reduction in corporation tax for small firms and the fact that he didn't lower it for larger firms. This is now down at 12.5 per cent for us and will make a big difference to small firms with less than £50,000 (€63,532) in corporation tax." Mr Coleman was equally supportive of the cut in capital acquisitions tax. "We had a limit of £192,000 on inheritance but this has now been raised to £300,000. This means most semi-detached houses in Dublin can now be left to family members."
But he believes Mr McCreevy's plan to separate the tax bands between single and married people could spell trouble. "He could end up in court over this one," says Mr Coleman. "Why is it equitable for a family with one person working to pay tax at the £28,000 limit but if two people are working this is increased to £32,000?"
Likewise, he was disappointed that the maximum employee pension allowance for additional voluntary contributions was not increased over 15 per cent.