Fine Gael yesterday sharply dismissed claims by the Progressive Democrats that their proposals on stamp duty would destabilise the property market.
The Green Party also expressed reservations about Fine Gael's plans, but said they found them preferable to the approach of the PDs.
The Progressive Democrats accused Fine Gael of offering a watered-down, or "PD lite", version of tax proposals previously put forward by them.
PD Senator John Minihan from Cork South-Central said Fine Gael's plan to reform the stamp duty regime over a three-year period was "ill-advised" and promised the PDs would remove this "unfair burden" immediately in a new government.
"The fact that Fine Gael would delay the full implementation of stamp duty reforms for three years would create insecurity among prospective home-buyers and destabilise the property market.
"Fine Gael has also set an exemption limit of €450,000 for abolishing the tax, which discriminates against city-dwellers who are naturally buying more expensive properties," Mr Minihan said.
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the PDs' comment was "enough to make a cat laugh".
"For them to be saying that Fine Gael's proposals are too little too late - have they forgotten that they have been in Government for a decade and have done nothing about this unjust tax? Do they expect us to believe they will fix something in the next five years that they didn't fix in the last 10"
He strongly rejected claims that Fine Gael's approach would destabilise the property market. "Precisely the opposite was said by the chief executive of the auctioneers and valuers institute this morning on radio," Mr Bruton said.
There was no question of a Fine Gael-led government "spooking" the property market by an overnight change in stamp duty regulations. "We will introduce this in a prudent way," Mr Bruton said.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil refused to make any comment on Fine Gael's stamp duty and taxation proposals. A spokeswoman for the main government party said: "No, we will be unveiling our own range of policies as we come closer to the election."
Green Party finance spokesman Dan Boyle TD said: "We wish to bring about a targeted reform. We favour exemption from the duty for those down-sizing property, with a further exemption for first-time buyers seeking to purchase the vacated property. We would favour exemptions for house-purchasers changing property for care or disability reasons.
"The Fine Gael proposals raising the thresholds is certainly a better method than the PD approach of changing the rates. Our fear is that with either approach the benefit would not accrue to the house-purchaser and would instead go to the developer and house-seller.
"Fine Gael seem to realise the danger of this and are thinking of legislation prohibiting the transfer of benefit into sale margins," Mr Boyle said.
Responding, Mr Bruton said: "We believe our proposal is simple and fair and targeted and will facilitate older people wanting to trade down and will reduce the tax burden for such people."
