Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, that has been the tendency of those two parties in the past.

The Minister referred to domestic rates. I opposed their elimination at the time as being the wrong move from a local government point of view. I recognised, however, that I am a member of a party which has a policy of low taxation as part of its philosophy. It is a republican party that is concerned with empowering people to spend and invest their own money as they wish, which is a far better economic template than one which takes all their money from them. Unfortunately, the latter template is the one being followed by Fine Gael and the Labour Party, both of which are parties of high taxation.