FINE GAEL HAS been accused of being “disingenuous” in the production of a short video where Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald says “there will have to be tax increases”.

Fine Gael posted a Vine on Monday containing a short clip of McDonald’s appearance on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics last Sunday:
http://vine.co/v/izvux0Up9ZQ

In producing the video, Fine Gael was attempting to contrast Sinn Féin’s position on taxation with its own commitment to abolishing Universal Social Charge in the next Dáil:

Sinn Féin hit back, describing the Vine as “typical, pathetic FG crap”:

The party even got in this dig of its own:

Sinn Féin also hit back in a statement to TheJournal.ie, saying:

Fine Gael are being completely disingenuous with this Vine.  They have edited out the context of Mary Lou’s comments.

The context is that McDonald was talking about universal healthcare and the government’s decision last week to long finger the introduction of universal health insurance.

McDonald said the Sinn Féin alternative is “universal healthcare funded through general taxation”.

Asked on The Week in Politics how that would be paid for, McDonald said it would involve tax increases:

We have said all along and it was the theme of our pre-budget submission to say to people we want to increase public services and therefore there will have to be tax increases.

But Sinn Féin told us that Fine Gael prefers to give tax breaks to high earners over investing in public services.

A spokesperson said the party wants to provide “first class public services” as a priority. Does it mean tax increases? Yes, they said, before adding:

But, under Sinn Féin, it is only the top 6% who will be asked to pay more while low and middle income earners will be protected.

Asked to respond to the charge that its Vine is “typical, pathetic FG crap”, a Fine Gael spokesperson said: “The next election will be a choice between who will keep the recovery going and who will put it at risk.

Sinn Féin’s confirmed tax hikes on ordinary workers will put the recovery at risk and stifle job creation. They are opposing the tax cuts in Budget because they believe people earning over €33,800 should pay more than 50% income tax. In Sinn Féin’s world these are high earners.

“Fine Gael has a plan to reduce taxes funded by strong job creation. Sinn Féin has no plan, except tax hikes which they confirmed last Sunday.”

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