Employers group IBEC says the government can hit its budgetary targets with adjustments of just €200 million.

That compares with the €2 billion adjustment originally favoured by the government, but which Finance Minister Michael Noonan has more recently questioned himself.

In a pre budget submission this morning, IBEC says cuts to income and consumer taxes, and increased investment, will kickstart Ireland's recovery.

Chief Economist at IBEC, Fergal O'Brien, thinks the latest exchequer figures have created room for manoeuvre:

Fergal O'Brien says we must do more to help people get back to work. "We still have double digit unemployment rate. I think we cannot afford to waste another year in not helping to do more to get those people back to work. By having a growth-enhancing budget you grow the overall size of our tax revenue, grow the overall size of the economy, put people back to work quicker and that's how you get the deficit down and that's how you outgrow your debt."