Brid Smith challenges Emer Costello to debate on socialism

Brid Smith challenges Emer Costello to debate on socialism

Brid Smith, the People Before Profit candidate for the Dublin euro election challenges Emer Costello to a debate on socialism.

In a statement, Cllr. Brid Smith said: ‘Emer Costello has erected posters at Dublin train stations that cost a vast amount of money that I cannot afford.. She claimed that the failure to mention her affiliation to the Labour Party was an ‘oversight’.

‘I do not believe this incredible story. Emer Costello knows that the people of Dublin are going to make the Labour Party pay a heavy price for their betrayals. In opposition, her party stated that there would be no property tax until  full site values had been established. In government, her party forced the people of Dublin to pay artificially high property charges.

‘Emer Costello’s posters claim that she belongs to the ‘Socialists and Democrats’ of Europe. She knows that the main challenge to her position is from the left – and this is why she is pretending to be a socialist. I challenge Ms Costello to a debate on what exactly her socialist vision is. I want to know how she can claim to be a socialist and support austerity economics.

‘Emer Costello’s party has presided over a  situation where taxes on PAYE workers have risen from 27 percent of all revenue in 2012 to 42 percent today. Taxes on corporate profits and capital gains have dropped from 20 percent to 13 percent today. It is clear that Labour has become just another party of the wealthy and upper professional groups.