Fianna Fáil launches campaign against property tax
Fianna Fáil has today launched a campaign to oppose the property tax.
It says that the tax, which is expected to be based on the value of a home, is the wrong tax at the wrong time.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said last month that the new tax will come into effect in the middle of next year.
However, the exact rate of the tax is not yet known.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said that despite the fact that the tax was first mooted when he was in Government, his party will now oppose it.
"The situation hasn't quite materialised as people projected at the outset of the plan by any yardstick, and we're not the only people saying this,"
"By any yardstick, to impose a tax at this particular time would be highly detrimental to the performance of the economy, and it's on that basis that we're saying that this is the wrong tax at the wrong time."
Fellow opposition party Sinn Féin, who also oppose the tax, accused Fianna Fáil of “hypocrisy” following the launch, however.
Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said: “If Fianna Fáil were in Government this unfair and damaging tax would have already been introduced.
“Sinn Féin has consistently opposed the introduction of a property tax.
“Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin has some cheek launching a campaign against the introduction of a property tax in 2013.
“It was a Fianna Fail Government that negotiated the first Memorandum of Understanding with the Troika. That agreement contained a clear commitment to introduce a property tax for Budget 2012 as part of a revenue raising package of €1.6bn.
“Fianna Fail’s 2012 pre-budget submission included a proposal for a property tax to raise €120m.
“Today’s campaign launch is typical of the hypocrisy of Fianna Fail in Opposition. They are constantly opposing things they agreed to when in Government and criticising the Government for continuing the failed social and economic policies they they pioneered.
“Micheál Martin has absolutely no credibility when it comes to issues such as the property tax. If he were Taoiseach he would be faithfully implementing the Troika agreement agreed by the Cabinet of which he was a part.”
