Combat Poverty’s pre-budget submission for Budget 2008 focuses on a number of key public service areas which will contribute to reducing poverty and social exclusion. With 290,000 people living in consistent poverty and 770,000 at risk of poverty, Budget 2008 presents an opportunity to improve public services, to tackle anomalies in the system and to take a decisive step towards meeting the national target to reduce ‘consistent poverty to between 2 and 4 per cent by 2012, with the aim of eliminating consistent poverty by 2016’