Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has called on the Taoiseach to call an election and face the electorate without delay.

Speaking at the party’s away day before the Dáil resumes in Co Meath, Mr Adams said Sinn Féin will scrap water charges, abolish the property tax and introduce a wealth tax if in government.

He said the party would ensure the banks would solve the mortgage crisis, increase the minimum wage and move towards a living wage.

“Citizens desperately need a Government which is not led by Fine Gael or Fianna Fail. These two conservative parties have domninated politics here since partition,” he said.

“Citizens need a progressive government which will pursue viable policies based on equality not on austerity, based on rights not on privilege and which will govern in the interests of citizens as opposed to the interests of the elite.”

The Louth TD said it was time to call an election and give the electorate their chance to have their say. He said Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour were scared of the mass momentum Sinn Féin has been building.

“When the Taoiseach has the guts to call an election Sinn Féin will contest every constituency,” he said. “We will fight every contest to win.”

Mr Adams said his party would give citizens an opportunity to choose “the principled equality based politics of republicanism as opposed to the old politics of strokes and privilege.

“When the Taoiseach assumed office he promised a ‘democratic revolution’ but delivered unaccountable government and stroke politics at its worst.”