The Donegal South West TD was responding to a Retail Excellence Ireland survey which found that 95% of retailers believed that the introduction of a property tax would have a negative impact on their business.
Deputy Doherty said: "Sinn Féin has long argued against the introduction of a property tax for all home owners. While we do not yet know what the average cost of the tax will be we know it will hit the disposable income of hundreds of thousands of home owners. This will further depress consumer demand and cost jobs. A property tax is bad for low and middle income households, bad for retailers and bad for the domestic economy.
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"The Government would be better introducing a wealth tax on net assets in excess of €1million. This would raise up to €800,000 annually without the negative impact on families, businesses or the domestic economy. Sinn Féin will be publishing a Wealth Tax Bill later this month in an attempt to convince the Government of the merits of our proposal."
(CD/GK)
