Employers body Ibec has said increased wages for low-paid workers — as proposed by Labour — will have to wait until more investment is first pumped into the economy.

More than a thousand pubs have closed in Ireland since 2007, with the prospect of additional excise increases likely to further damage the industry, the Joint Oireachtas Committee of Finance heard yesterday.

Workers who earn more than €100,000 a year should pay almost half of their salary to the Government.

Taxes on economic ’bads’ like carbon emissions, gambling, cigarettes and junk food are needed to raise revenue for the Exchequer, it was claimed.

An equality think-tank has piled more pressure on the Government to target highearners in the upcoming budget.

Reforms to the Universal Social Charge will leave 330,000 low-paid and part-time workers €201 better off this year, the Government has said.

Independent think-tank Tasc has criticised what it called a 'budget of missed opportunities'.

An independent think-tank has today urging the Government to show evidence that it has 'poverty proofed' next month's Budget.

A GROUP working to address the country’s economic inequalities says the Government could save €2 billion a year by restructuring its “IOUs” for Anglo Irish Bank.

BARRIERS being put in the way of freedom of information (FoI) requests are part of a culture of state secrecy that is damaging the country’s democracy and economic development, according to independent think-tank Tasc.

A SECOND former Fine Gael leader has backed the Government’s proposed National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).