Employers organisation Ibec has urged the Government to resist the urge to use October's budget for a pre-election giveaway and instead focus on the strategic needs of the economy.
Launching its pre-budget submission, the group says that while the mood of business here is currently positive and optimistic, capacity pressures remain a significant concern for members and the competitiveness landscape has shifted considerably in the last year.
Ibec's Executive Director of Lobbying and Influence, Fergal O'Brien, said Ireland is facing increased competitive pressure when it comes to winning inward investment, particularly from the US.
Closer to home, he said, European governments are increasingly offering incentives to woo business activity in areas like decarbonisation.
"We are getting a real sense now from our multinational membership in particular, that there is a sense of policy complacency about the success of inward investment," he said.
"We are concerned about the pipeline, we are concerned as to what it is going to look like two or three years down the road in terms of winning those new projects and those new investments, because it is definitely getting harder on bid process now and we are getting that in real time," Mr O'Brien said.
"We are concerned that we are not actually investing in the future growth model," he added.
Mr O'Brien added that for Ibec it is about making the right decisions.
"It is not going to be handouts to households, we cannot afford to do that, that is not an investment strategy," he said.
"We need an investment and economic strategy for the economy," he stated.
"Even though this is the last budget of the Government, clearly it is a signal in terms of where we want to take the economic model over the coming years," he said.
"We want to see competitiveness underpinned, we want to see us investing in the economic infrastructure of the State in every sense, including services," he added.
Ibec calculates that the Government will have less new money to allocate in the budget compared to recent years, if it sticks to its own self-imposed rule of not increasing spending by more than 5%, which has been broken in recent years.
Ibec's chief economist, Ger Brady, said the organisation estimates that around half of the €22 billion in resources available to the Government is precommitted to the contingency reserves, future funds and capital spending.
As a result the Government has around €4.5 billion net of taxes to spend without borrowing or breaking its spending rule, he said.
He added that a repeat of the one-off measures announced in the last budget would use up around half of that amount.
Ibec is proposing a budget package of around €4.58 billion, which would include €2.3 billion in tax cuts and €150m in tax increases, as well as €1.6 billion in capital spending.
To underpin competitiveness, it wants an employers' PRSI rebate to compensate for new Government imposed labour costs, as well as the indexation of the PRSI entry point.
It also wants an international energy costs benchmarking exercise to be carried out, with a competitiveness subvention where required.
Ibec is also seeking a series of enhancements to the benefit-in-kind, Small Benefits Exemption and Revenue Enhanced Reporting Requirements rules to reduce the cost and hassle for companies associated with giving small gifts, such as Easter eggs.
The body is also seeking the re-establishment of a Government unit to ensure coherent assessment and introduction of new regulations impacting businesses.
It also wants €400m in infrastructure funding to be set aside to help businesses meet the costs of decarbonisation through a Carbon Contracts for Difference Scheme.
The organisation also wants the National Training Fund to be given the same treatment as other similar specific purpose funds, so that it is not treated as non-core spending, allowing its sizeable surplus to be unlocked for use.
Ibec is also calling for €200m for a National Training Voucher Scheme and €220m for the care sectors to help boost labour market participation.
On housing, it is seeking an extension of the development contribution waiver and support for offsite construction methods.
It also wants to see the Housing for All targets for new home building increased.
The business lobby group is also calling for support for SMEs, family and founder led businesses through the abandoning of a planned capital gains tax cap on retirement relief for family businesses.
It also thinks there should be additional support for the take-up of share options through an increase in the €12,700 limit on Revenue approved share option schemes which has not been indexed since the early 2000s, to €20,000.
