The Government's primary rationale in preparing the December Budget should be to create an environment conducive to small business growth and job creation, according the Small Firms Association.
In its pre-Budget submission, the SFA identifies five points which it believes will be crucial restoring economic growth.
These are: restoring confidence; rebalancing the austerity programme with a growth plan; public sector reform; social welfare reform; and tax policy.
SFA chairman Ian Martin said in a statement that the association believes these points would "be critical to restoring economic growth and to solving the unemployment, while being in the main cost-neutral to implement".
The SFA also called on the Government to "communicate its four year fiscal adjustments to give certainty".
It said that the Budget target of €3.6 billion should be achieved through expenditure cuts and not tax increases. It calls for an SME credit guarantee scheme.
In relation to public sector reform, the SFA called for an end to increment pay increases and said the Croke Park wage agreement needs to deliver "specific measurable savings within a determined timeframe".
The SFA said that self-employed people and business owners should have the same social welfare safety net as employees, and that there is a need to remove disincentives to work.
On the issue of tax, the SFA said that there should be no change to Ireland's 12.5% corporation tax rate, income tax or VAT. It cautioned that the only tax increases should be the introduction of property taxes.
The SFA's submission was presented to Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, last week.
