Fine Gael and Labour have launched their plans for the economy and jobs.
Launching the Fine Gael policy document, party leader Enda Kenny said small business was a passport to jobs and a better future, and the party was putting in place policies which would encourage such businesses to grow.
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Richard Bruton of Fine Gael said no increase in income tax, reducing employers' PRSI and reducing the low rate of VAT were all important aspects of Fine Gael policy. He also said the upward-only rent review rule was preventing businesses from surviving.
Under Fine Gael's NewERA plan, the party will invest €7 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund and the sale of State assets in water, broadband and energy.
On exports, the party proposes tax credits to multi-national companies which support exporting Irish companies, while service companies that export more than 90% of their output will be VAT exempt. It also plans a new Asia Strategy to treble trade between Ireland and Asia by 2025.
In its economic document, Labour proposes extending the period of the EU/IMF deal to 2016 and commits the party to re-negotiate its terms.
The party also wants to reduce the deficit to 4.8% of GDP by 2014 and to below 3% no later than 2016. It wants a €7 billion adjustment in the public finances between 2012 and 2014.
Labour will draw up a seven-year National Development Plan and make changes to the universal social charge, which it says was badly thought out.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has said that the first choice that Irish voters have to make in this election is whether our Budgets are decided in Frankfurt or by the democratically elected government of the Irish people.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said words like re-negotiation, in terms of the EU/IMF deal, were a nonsense. He said the IMF and EU had made it clear their interest rates were not up for negotiation and were the rates paid by every state in the world.
Mr Lenihan said any re-negotiation would be multi-national and would not be agreed in radio studios or in the media.
