Government policy should make clear social and economic values and state which take precedence in budgetary terms, a conference on fiscal issues and the family was told yesterday.
Ms Ita Mangan, a legal and social policy consultant, said it was time for the Government to take decisions on the basis of the social and economic values it believed should be pursued.
Speaking at the Foundation of Fiscal Studies of UCD annual conference, she said the tax system should be used to further economic policies such as work incentives. The social welfare system should be used to support dependants and their carers.
"If a decision is not made on the correct road to take, we will simply compound the existing problems," she said.
The reaction to the Budget 2000 announcement of the intention to individualise the standard rate tax band had, in her view, little to do with the economic or social or even the individual monetary impact of the changes. "Instead, it was concerned with the perceived lack of value being placed on certain roles relative to other roles."
Mr Gerard Hogan SC, a constitutional lawyer, said the role of the courts on taxation legislation issues should be a limited one.
He said the provisions in Budget 2000 which created controversy over women in the home were not unconstitutional. The constitutional article ensured that mothers were not forced to work because of financial hardship.