Responding to comments from Deputy Robert Dowds, Cllr Gilligan, who was participating in the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting in Sutton’s Marine Hotel commented: "As each week passes, the language used by Labour backbenchers to criticise those with different views on how we should address the economic crisis becomes shriller and more hysterical.
"Fianna Fáil has come to the view that the property tax as proposed by the Government is the wrong plan, at the wrong time. With 40% of all households unable to pay the €100 household charge, record numbers of families in arrears or in negotiation with the banks and an entire section of society on middle incomes at the pin of their collars, we simply do not believe that introducing a property tax at this time is appropriate or sustainable.
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"Before reverting to the usual name-calling and political mud-slinging, Labour backbenchers might be better off listening to the communities that elected them. Never before has a Government party become so out of touch in so short a period. The Labour Party regularly congratulates itself on making tough decisions. This is no benefit unless these decisions are also fair.
"If Deputy Dowds doesn't want to listen to homeowners, he might take a moment to look back on the comments of his Leader Eamon Gilmore who, as recently as October 2010 promised the Evening Herald that the Labour Party would not introduce a property tax."
(CD)
