Garrett Greene, Workers’ Party for Cabra-Glasnevin, has criticised Labour for joining up with Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens to form a ruling group on Dublin City Council, meaning we’ll see more of the same in Dublin city over the next five years.

Greene said: “The crux of their opposition to a progressive alliance, Labour say, is their support of the Local Property Tax, which Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens are likely to leave unchanged. Those who own property should indeed pay taxes on it, but this tax needs reform. At present, the owners of homes under €1 million all pay a similar rate, meaning the owner of a home worth €300k and the owner of a home worth €995k are considered the same. This can hardly be argued to be a progressive measure. It is a proportional, rather than progressive, tax.”

“The tax was introduced in 2010 as an austerity measure by Fianna Fail and the Greens to appease the Troika after the 2008 financial crisis. Given their own form during the austerity years of the government that followed, perhaps it is no wonder that Labour are happy to support it.”

“The Workers’ Party supports a progressive property tax, which would see homes worth over €300k taxed at a lower rate, homes worth over €600k taxed at a higher rate, and homes worth over €1 million taxed at a higher rate again. This would be a fairer, more genuinely redistributive means of taxing property, instead of the austerity-justifying Local Property Tax that Labour are currently championing.”