Fine Gael pursuing 'reckless and unfair boom and bust' financial policies

A SINN FÉIN Finance Minister will scrap the unfair Local Property Tax and Water Charges and replace them with a system of fair taxation, the party's Finance Spokesperson told reporters at a Press Conference in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin.

Joined by candidates Councillor Kathleen Funchion and Councillor Shane O'Brien, the Donegal TD outlined how his party has the legislation required to scrap the Property Tax “ready to go” and that it would be one of the first moves of a Sinn Féin-led Government along with scrapping water charges:

“Sinn Féin wants to see a fair recovery and we want to ensure it is sustainable. In government we will introduce a fair tax system. We will ease the burden on the average worker, including those who are self-employed, and ask those who earn the most to pay their fair share,” he said.

Doherty said the legislation a Sinn Féin Government would initiate in the weeks after the Dáil returns would immediately halt requests for payment form Irish Water.

Doherty also criticised Fine Gael plans to do away with the Universal Social Charge (USC) in its entirety saying it would disproportionately benefit those on higher wages:

“It's unfair an reckless,” he told journalists, “high earners will be more than €10,000 better off while someone who earns €18,000 a year will be about €100 a year better off.  It also involves taking the equivalent of the entire health and education budgets out of the tax system over five years.”

He said Sinn Féin qould take 277,000 low-paid workers out of the USC net while retaining the tax on those earning more in order to fund vital services in the areas of health and social housing.