At last a political party has clearly indicated a desire to break from the prevailing low tax consensus and so we might just have a little scope for debate. Sinn Féin is reported to be advocating a 50% tax rate for those earning over €100,000 a year, capital gains tax would increase and corporation tax is proposed to be at the rate of 17.5%. Other elements in the soon to be finalised policy document include splitting stamp duty revenue between central and local government and the introduction of significant tax breaks to be offered to Irish-owned firms if they invest in research and development, in remote regions and in environmentally sustainable industries.
So does this reinforce the perception of Sinn Féin as a party of the left? Does it give the party some credibility as a radical force in Irish politics, a party who will campaign with conviction for policies that are outside of the mainstream? I'm in the sceptical camp on this one. In the short term, tacking to the left will win Sinn Féin votes, in particular the votes of working class Fianna Fáil or Labour voters. The party's immediate aim at the next general election would be to double its vote and get its Dáil representation into double figures. This is achievable. But party strategists will be aware of the need to broaden the party's appeal if it wants to rival Fianna Fáil and become the dominant political force in the Republic. While this might seem fantastical, the leadership of Sinn Féin has not decommissioned the armed struggle just to be junior partners in some future coalition government.
It's likely that party strategists think that in the long term Sinn Féin will need to have genuine cross-class appeal and will want to avoid being stuck on an electoral plateau like the Workers' Party was at the end of the 1980s. It will want to avoid the perception of being ant-business. Michael McDowell has already used the phrase "Hello Mary Lou, goodbye jobs" as a jibe against its desire to raise taxes.
Fundamentally, Sinn Féin is a nationalist party and that means that it will refuse to accept that there could be an irreconcilable clash of interests and the party would have to choose one mutually antagonistic interest over another. Sinn Féin could learn most from Fianna Fáil in this regard. The dominant party in the system has been in government about three-quarters of the time since its foundation and yet such is its populism that it somehow manages to argue that the 'establishment' is somewhere else and not to be found in that 'great movement of the Irish people'. There are some quoted remarks of Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin in the October 6th edition of Business and Finance that could have been said by any Fianna Fáiler:
I think we are radical but a much more important word is relevant. Sinn Féin is relevant and that is a much more important depiction of our position today...I enjoy, and my colleague deputies and our elected councillors throughout this state enjoy, support of significant numbers of people in business life and at all levels of business in our respective communities. Sinn Féin is the largest political party in Co. Monaghan, my home county. That was not based on a sectoral appeal.
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