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Thu 11 Nov 2002Widening the gap between rich and poor was deliberateImprovements in welfare for the poor over the past five years have beendwarfed by the scale of tax reductions slanted towards the better off,writes Eithne FitzgeraldThe present Minister for Finance has made no secret of his ideological preference for a low tax, low public service society. By underestimating the cost of his tax-cutting programme, Charlie McCreevy has gone even farther than he originally intended. The sharp cutbacks in public spending announced in the Estimates will bring public spending as a share of GNP even further below the European norm.