Fianna Fail TDs will have a last opportunity to lobby Cowen next Wednesday at the final parliamentary party meeting before the budget.

There are mixed views among Fianna Fail backbenchers about PD pressure to cut the 42% top income tax rate. But there is strong consensus that the stamp duty exemption thresholds for firsttime buyers should be increased.

Figures released last week show that Cowen will have 600m available in 2007 with the ending of the government top-up payment to SSIA account holders.

These funds, combined with strong exchequer finances, would comfortably allow the finance minister to deliver a tax package worth about 1.5bn. It remains uncertain, however, whether an income tax rate cut will be combined with the expected increase in tax credits. It would cost in the region of 70m to take first-time buyers out of the stamp duty regime.

"I'm not getting it in the neck on income tax, " Cork North Central TD Noel O'Flynn admitted. "I would like to see the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers increased from 317,000 to 400,000, " he added.

His view was shared by Westmeath deputy Donie Cassidy. "I don't see a clamour for an income tax rate cut. I haven't received a single representation on the issue, " Cassidy said.

However, Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness said he would welcome income tax reductions. "I'd like to see rate cuts, particularly the higher rate, as well as an expansion in credits. That would not be a bad idea, " McGuinness said.

Martin Brady from Dublin North East also favoured a cut.

"That would be a good move. I would like to see it happening, " he said. Charlie O'Connor from Dublin South West said Cowen had a "balancing act" which had "to demonstrate the government's commitment to social inclusion".

The prospect of an income tax rate cut has increased recently with the PDs placing renewed focus on the government's pledge to reduce the top rate to 40% in the right economic environment. "We're not going to up the ante on this one. It will be for Michael McDowell and the Taoiseach to sort out before budget day, " one PD source said.