Budget gets mixed reaction from interest groups

There has been more reaction from interest groups around the country.

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed says the Government is punishing rather than supporting people out of work.

INOU Co-ordinator John Stewart says cutting social welfare rates back to 2008 levels will only hurt people struggling to find work.

"The Minister today had an opportunity to support unemployed people," he said. "He took a different route entirely - he's punished unemployed people in this Budget.

"In terms of people's job seeking, we can see there's a whole issue there around the availability of employment - so really cutting people's social welfare payments is not the way to go. Unemployed people need to be supported."

Director General of the Construction Industry Federation Tom Parlon says the massive cut in capital spending is devastating for the construction industry.

"Unfortunately, €960m less is certainly going to mean less job in the industry, more job losses and less revenue for the exchequer," he said.

"Certainly whatever negatives are said about construction, we employed masses of people and they all paid their tax and our industries are all based here - so there will be more job losses.

"And as the Minister said about the economy that the worst is over, unfortunately the worst is not over in construction."

While Conor Faughnan from the AA is welcoming the car scrappage scheme, he is disappointed to see that motorists will be paying more at pumps.

"The carbon tax levy that they're proposing works out at 4c per litre for petrol, 5c per litre for diesel effective as of midnight tonight" he said.

"That is disappointing; it's a rise in the cost of living - it'll also fire a lot of business North across the border so I don't think it's a good idea tactically, either."

James Doorley from the National Youth Council says the cut in dole will drive young people from this country.

"It's a bad move from our perspective. We see young people .... with a lot of skills, a lot of talents are now going to be forced to leave the country because who's going to be able to live in this economy on €100 a week?" he said.

"It's unacceptable really and it's very, very disappointing and I think the country will lose - not just young people - but the country [itself] will lose from this very savage cutback."

The Chief Executive of the children's charity Barnardos says thousands of families will fall into the poverty trap as a result of the decision to reduce child benefit.

Fergus Finlay says the Government is targeting the most vulnerable through the measures announced today.

"They're going to reduce child benefit by a significant amount for thousands of families who are just above the poverty line - and that will do immense damage," he said.

"They've said they will protect families on social welfare from the effects child benefit cut, but they are cutting adult rates for those families - so those families too will suffer a significant drop in income."