DO YOU WANT State of the Nation delivered to your inbox every morning at 9.30am? Sign-up to our email alert at the bottom of this story.

Everyone’s talking about…

Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

We’re just one week out from when Finance Minister Michael Noonan rises to make his fifth budget speech. One which is sure to have a distinctly more positive hue to the ones he made in those Troika-tinged days of yore.

A Budget countdown means alternative Budgets aplenty and yesterday Renua put their ideological cards firmly down on the table by proposing a flat rate of income tax for all workers of 23%.

Taking aim at a distinct core of voters, Renua say their tax plans are designed to “create more employment and take people out of the welfare and poverty trap“.

While Renua’s proposals of a flat rate contrasts directly with Sinn Féin who want a third-rate of tax for higher earners,  Lucinda Creighton’s party aren’t on their own with the radical proposal.

Advocacy group the Hibernian Forum launch their own pre-budget submission today and like Renua, they’ll be proposing a flat tax.

The group is led by journalist Eamon Delaney and is chaired by accountant and commentator Cormac Lucey. They say they advocate a free market economics approach and want “prudent public spending”.

They’re plan also argues that people on middle-income are also getting too much welfare support, putting too much pressure on high earners to fill up welfare coffers.

We’ll have to wait and see Noonan an co. are thinking in this election year budget.

Incidentally, Arthur Beesley is reporting in the Irish Times today that the perceived strength of the ‘Noonan-Howlin axis’ could be used by Fine Gael and Labour as a kind of economic election dream-team ticket during election campaigning.

The agenda

• Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan will answer questions about her brief from 2pm.
• The Irish Farmers Association is to discuss the dairy and sheep sectors with the Agriculture Committee from 2pm.
• The Oireachtas Culture Committee will chat to Victor Finn of the Irish Music Rights Organisation about the contribution of music to the economy. That’s from 2.15pm.
• Taoiseach Enda Kenny faces Leaders Questions from 3.15pm and then stays on his feet for further questions from other deputies thereafter.
• The Dáil will also formally vote to extend the banking inquiry’s deadline from the end of November to the end of January.
• “Aggressive tax avoidance” by multinational firms is set to be debated at 7.30pm after a private members motion laid down by the technical group.
• Ann Doherty, the twin of Ireland’s longest missing child Mary Boyle, is set to meet a number of TDs today after developments in the case.
• In the Seanad, members will debate the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 from 5pm. 

Inside Leinster House 

While the government partners may be on different sides of the debate over whether the 8th Amendment should be repealed in a new Dáil term. Dublin City Council voted last night by 39 votes to 11 to call on the government to hold a referendum.

While such a call won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, it keeps the issue bubbling-on towards the election campaign instead of getting totally overshadowed by money matters.

What the others are saying

• The government have cooled on plans to use customer details from Sky and UPC to clamp down on Licence Fee evasion according to The Irish Times. 
• The Irish Times is also reporting that there’s a budget plan to subsidise the childcare costs of 25,000 low-income families.
• Farmers and the self-employed will be offered a tax break worth €1,650 over the next five years reports the Irish Independent.
• Environment Minister Alan Kelly is to meet owners and residents of the Longboat Quay complex today reports The Irish Examiner.  

In case you missed it… 

• Renua proposed a radical plan to introduce a 23% flat rate of income tax. 
• Sinn Féin says it is “actively considering” whether to run a candidate against Labour’s Seanad nominee Mairia Cahill.
• Less than a fifth of people in Ireland trust Fianna Fáil to manage the economy again, according to a new poll.
• As election talk continues, Enda Kenny refused to rule out an election before Christmas.
• We got our first look at the new film about ‘Chuck Brothers’ Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness.

Timothy Spall as Ian Paisley and Colm Meaney as Martin McGuinness. IM Global IM Global

Good day for…   

Mairia Cahill. While questions will understandably be asked about the Labour Party’s intentions in nominating her, Cahill’s nomination to the Seanad is a strong statement of the impact she has had in the last 12 months.

Bad day for…    

Jerry O’Dea. The Mayor of Limerick city is facing calls to step down in the wake of news stories about an internal garda probe into the handling of an investigation into a car crash he was involved in.

On the Twitter machine…   

Lucinda Creighton TD has this Twitter thing down.