Ahead of Tuesday’s Budget the main opposition parties have released their alternative Budget submissions – here we gather the main points from each.

Anti-Austerity Alliance

• Immediately reverse the cuts to Rent Supplement and bring it up to cover market rents.
• To acquire 46,000 vacant properties across the state over a 3 year period at a cost of €1.5 billion in 2016 to use as social housing in the short term. 
• Building of 100,000 new council homes, together with the redistribution of vacant stock this would clear the waiting list by 2018. Re-purposing NAMA as a social and affordable housing agency.
• Abolition of water charges & property tax.
• Abolish the USC for those earning less than €35,000, and half it for those earning between €35,000 - €70,000.
• To enforce the effective rate of 12% on hedge funds to raise €2 billion, and to introduce a financial transaction tax to raise at least €1 billion.

Sinn Féin

• The two main opposition parties are publishing their pre-budget submissions.
• Abolish water charges and property tax.
• Introduce wealth tax for those earning over €100,000.
• Say they will put between €600 and €2,000 back in the pocket of the average workers depending on their wage and family circumstances.
• Increase in spending on education, at total cost of €180m.
• Reduce student contribution fee by €500, increase funding for the school meals programme by 40% and increase the book grant support by 30%, increase the back to school clothing and footwear allowance by €50

Fianna Fáíl

Abolish water charges, raise bands for Universal Social Charge

Housing

• An increase the rent ceiling by between 5 and 15% (average 10%) for rent supplement recipients in areas where pressure on rents is putting families at risk of homelessness.
• The re-establishment of the National Treatment Purchase Fund and additional cash to tackle hospital waiting lists.
• An increase in the old age pension rates by €5 a week and child benefit by €5 a month.
• A reduction of 1 point in the pupil teacher ratio at primary level and a reversal of the cuts to small rural schools.

Taxation

• Implement a phased introduction of an Earned Income Tax Credit for the Self-employed equal to the value of the PAYE tax credit, beginning with a credit of €500 in 2016.
• Incentivise entrepreneurs to set up new businesses by providing tapered relief from capital gains tax. A reduced rate of CGT of 15% should apply to entrepreneurs who subsequently sell their business.
• Address the lack of credit which is holding back many businesses from expanding, through the introduction of tax relief for individuals making loan capital investments to SMEs.
• Extend PRSI benefits to the self-employed on a voluntary basis."

Renua

• Flat rate of 23% income tax – abolish marginal rate of tax employees’ PRSI and USC.
• Remove the top rate of USC for self-employed people earning over €100,000.
• Positively discriminate in favour of investment in business by bringing the current rate of 33% down to 20% for investments in productive businesses (until a flat tax is introduced).
• Apply a new threshold of €500,000 for inheritance tax purposes.
• Encourage employee share schemes by deferring tax liability until an employee sells and takes their money out of a business
• Public sector.
• Reform of Irish public services - to reward high performance in the public sector with a merit based bonus system.
• Tax credit for childcare worth €500m, which will be split on an 80/20 basis between service-user and service-provider.
• Housing.
• Multi-billion euro annual Public Private Partnership Scheme under which housing is constructed for working families.
• Waiving of income tax on rental income from these properties as long as these properties are made available to tenants for a period of at least five years.

Other taxation measures

• Abolish of the TV licence fee
• Replace the motor tax bill with a direct levy on fuel that is collected at source
• Radically reform water charges by reconstituting Irish Water
• Replace the Local Property Tax with a new form of taxation made up of a site value charge and a zoned land charge
• Crack down on multinationals employing enhanced tax avoidance mechanisms.
• No public servant should be in receipt of a gross pension exceeding €60,000