Climate action leaves no room for tax cuts, Greens tell the big three parties

After holding talks with the three main political parties, the Greens believe they are destined to clash on tax cuts.

Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil all promised significant income tax cuts in their election manifestos.

However, the Greens are insisting investment in housing, health and climate action should supersede any tax cuts over the next five years.

"The three parties all want to deliver tax cuts and that's going to be problem," a senior Green Party source said.

During a policy seminar with the Greens yesterday, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe insisted tax cuts will be necessary if wages continues to grow by 3pc a year.

Mr Donohoe told the meeting middle-income earners will end up paying more as the cost of living will rise higher than salary increases.

The Green Party also expressed concern about the country facing €7bn in climate change fines if the Government does not take radical action.

The party is proposing a national housing retrofit scheme that could cost up to €5bn but would help reduce EU environmental penalties.

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It wants the next government to aim towards reducing emissions by 7pc but believe none of main three parties is interested in achieving this target.

"They have no ambitions in terms of climate emergency. They all want to reduce the tax take, they all want to make the lives of middle income families better and it's incredible they won't talk to each other," a Green source said.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are to meet for the first time today to discuss policies.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar revealed he has written to Sinn Féin seeking to discuss policy and the current deadlock surrounding government formation.

"What I said for the past two or three weeks is that we won't form a government with Sinn Féin," he said.

"We're not refusing to speak to anyone and we spoke with Sinn Féin in the past on many matters in relation to lots of different issues and do so regularly," he added.

The acting Taoiseach said he was willing to speak to any party but insisted he would not discuss government formation.

He said he contacted Sinn Féin last week and had yet to hear back from the party.

A senior Government source said Mr Varadkar was willing to talk policies with Ms McDonald and also to outline Fine Gael's analysis of the current political situation.

The source said Sinn Féin's failure to respond to the request for a meeting showed it was "not taking the negotiations seriously".

"It is criticising us one minute for not engaging in talks but then when we contacted them they just ignored us," the source said.

"It is just confirmation of what everyone knows about Sinn Féin, which is that they don't mean what they say and can't be trusted."

Ms McDonald said she would be writing back to Mr Varadkar and had "undertaken to speak to everybody".

The Sinn Féin leader told RTÉ's 'Drivetime' that Mr Varadkar had texted her and sent her a letter and that she had drafted a response but had not yet sent it.

Ms McDonald also said she was "taken aback" by an article he wrote in the 'Sunday Independent' that contained harsh criticisms and claims about Sinn Féin's finances.