As anger continues to mount over excessive pay for bankers, thousands of workers are mobilising to take part in a pre-Budget protest against austerity and for jobs and growth in Dublin on 24th November.

Following the revelation that over 70 senior executives across the bailed out banking sector are earning salaries in excess of €300,000 per annum, and some m ore than €500,000 plus benefits, the Government has come under renewed pressure to tackle the wealthy in the December Budget.

Congress and SIPTU have produced detailed proposals that could generate economic recovery and restore domestic demand amid worse than projected growth figu res for 2013. In its pre-Budget submission, Congress has called for an investment stimulus of €3 billion over three years to create some 100,000 new jobs and boost GDP by 2% per annum.

A new 48% tax rate for individual in comes over €100,000 and a 1% wealth tax are included in the Congress submission which also argues for the period of adjustment of the public finances to be extended to 2017 with a reversal of the planned ratio of spending cuts to taxes.

In a document endorsed by the National Executive Council of SIPTU, and entitled 'Towards a New Course', further proposals to incentivise investment and stimulate consumer spending are out lined including measures to release some of the estimated €5 billion inpersonal pension savings. "There is no quick fix for the economic crisis but the one-sided austerity approach is notworking. We must embark on a New Course," SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor, told Liberty.

(CD/GK)