Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she will not step down if her party fares badly in the general election, as she claimed that the moment has come “where history meets opportunity” at the launch of her party’s general election manifesto.
McDonald launched the manifesto on Tuesday morning, flanked by senior party members.
The party is promising to abolish the USC for those earning up to €45,000, to increase the minimum wage, end long-term homelessness by 2030, deliver 300,000 new homes by 2029, abolish the €500 million local property tax, introduce €10-a-day childcare and reduce the term of the Office of the President from the current seven years to five years.
A pledge made in 2020 to cut the pay of TDs and Senators appears to have been dropped, however, while McDonald also defended her plans for a review of RTÉ’s coverage of the conflict in the Middle East. Fine Gael accused Sinn Féin of political interference “in the independence and editorial process of our public service broadcaster”.
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Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe also said the Sinn Féin figures “don’t add up for five years. You cannot narrow the tax base to this extent without tax receipts falling away.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty confirmed that his party wants to abolish the property tax, which brings in about €500 million a year or 7 per cent of local Government revenue. He confirmed this would leave local authorities with a “gap in their funding” and that Sinn Féin would directly pay this back to local authorities through government expenditure.
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The party’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin was also asked if the Sinn Féin pledge to end long-term homelessness by 2030 was ambitious enough. He said that people will still become homeless but the way the State responded to this would be different, and that there would be a no fault evictions ban along with 6,500 tenant in situ acquisitions.
Ms McDonald was asked if she was dodging the media, an accusation she said she found “amusing” given the fact the question was raised at a press event. When asked if she would step down if the party fares badly in the election, she said no. Sinn Féin’s health spokesman David Cullinane said, meanwhile, that he wanted to be the “health minister that takes big bold steps towards universal healthcare”. The party has pledged €1 billion to legislate for free prescription medicines alongside medical cards for everyone who earns up to €45,000
Sinn Féin has also promised to deliver a mini-budget in its first 100 days of government. On taxation, Sinn Féin says it would introduce a 3 per cent solidarity tax on individual incomes above €140,000 and reform tax credits for individual incomes above €100,000. The party also pledged to establish a wealth tax commission to “advise on the most effective means of implementing a net wealth tax”.
In terms of property, Sinn Féin has also promised to abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers on properties up to €450,000.
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Ms McDonald said on Tuesday that her party had “the best team on the pitch” and that the moment has come “where history meets opportunity”.
On housing, she said the party’s plan for temporary and targeted mortgage relief would help “far more homeowners than the schemes in place for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil”.
Asked about defamation legislation, which has not yet passed through the Oireachtas, Ms McDonald said there was “wide agreement we need reform”, but disagreement on the involvement of juries.
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