Sinn Féin wants water charges halted and high earners to pay more tax

Sinn Féin is proposing to halt water charges, abolish property tax and introduce a third rate of tax for high earners.

However, at the launch of the party's alternative budget yesterday, senior party figures Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and Pearse Doherty confirmed they would pay the water charges, with Mr Doherty saying he would owe Irish Water more money if he did not fill out the application form sent to every household.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD said he was inclined not to pay but had to discuss the matter with his wife.

Mr Adams described the submission as a "Republican budget" while spokesman on finance Mr Doherty said the party had included only measures already costed by the Department of Finance.

The document stated a wealth tax of one per cent on assets above €1 million was one of the party's proposed measures that the Department "couldn't cost". It has therefore been kept out of its budgetary arithmetic. The Central Statistics Office may be in a position to produce data on wealth in 2015.

The JobBridge scheme was portrayed by Sinn Féin as “beyond repair” in its document, which said it should be closed to new applicants and “become obsolete” during 2015.

Mr Doherty said stopping water charges would cost €300 million and the abolition of property tax would cost €500 million.

The party would increase the tax paid on income over €100,000 by seven cent in every euro by introducing a third rate of tax of 48 per cent, a measure Mr Doherty said would raise €448 million.

Sustained attack

However, the measures came under immediate attack from other political parties. Taoiseach Enda Kenny claimed the proposed 48 per cent tax would bring the effective tax rate for higher earners to above 60 per cent at the margins and would be a powerful disincentive to create employment.

Both Labour and Fianna Fáil focused on the reverse of water charges. Labour claimed it would cost €500million or more while Fianna Fáil said the Sinn Féin solution of bringing in equity investment in Irish Water was another way of saying it wished to privatise the company.

Labour also attacked the plan for taking no account of demographic changes in Ireland in 2015 and also for "flip-flops" on policy. The party said Sinn Féin had vowed to reverse reductions announced in last year's budget such as the bereavement grant and the taxing of maternity benefit.

Dublin North West Labour TD John Lyons claimed Sinn Féin now accepted those changes in its latest document despite protesting vehemently against them last year.

Mr Doherty said the Government had “far greater scope than a neutral budget”.

The party produced a balance sheet outlining proposed tax income of more than €1.701 billion and tax spend of more than €1.053 billion, with adjustments, savings and Departmental spending resulting in an adjustment of zero.