Sinn Féin says it would repeal the property tax as a matter of priority if they ever get into government here. The party says it would also refund the property tax paid in whatever year that happens.

Deputy leader Mary-Lou McDonald says the legislation to repeal the tax is written and ready to go.

"I can't give you a specific day on which this would happen - but we're stating very clearly and we're doing this very consciously - because we know that for very many families across the State this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back" she said.

"This will be the thing that tips them from struggling to not coping, from debt into poverty - this is how serious this is" she added. 

'Dog's dinner' of a property tax

Meanwhile a second member of the Labour parliamentary party is slamming the manner in which the government is handling the property tax.

The Labour Party Chief Whip Emmet Stagg says the coalition has made a "dog's dinner" of the way in which the tax is being administered. It is over the drastic reduction in the number of exemptions offered to those living in unfinished ghost estates - in comparison to the household charge.

43,000 homes were exempt from the household charge last year. But that has plummeted to 5,100 for the property tax.

Yesterday Junior Labour party Minister Sean Sherlock also criticised the way in which the Government has handled the issue. While Labour Chief Whip Emmett Stagg has told KFM the estates have not "miraculously" been completed in the last 12 months.