Finance Minister Brian Cowen said today he will announce Fianna Fáil 's plans for reforming taxes on property transactions by Thursday.
Mr Cowen said the focus would be on helping first-time buyers and that he would do nothing to disrupt the housing market. "Anything that we will do will be in favour of first-time buyers . . . I am against the scatter gun approach of Fine Gael and Labour who are throwing money all over the place to see if they can get a few votes."
The long-running debate on reform of the stamp duty regime has been blamed, along with higher European Central Bank interest rates, for a slowdown in the property market.
House buyers can pay up to 9 per cent in stamp duty, and economists say some have been delaying purchases in the hope the tax will be cut.
Fianna Fáil is the only party not to have announced its plans for reforming the tax, and Mr Cowen accused Opposition parties of contributing to an end to the State's property boom.
"They're creating the uncertainty and the problems that we're seeing in the building industry which we will clarify and bring to an end once we announce our manifesto," Mr Cowen said.
Data last week showed house prices staged their first monthly fall in over five years in March. A Reuters poll of economists showed yesterday they had cut their median forecast for full-year growth to 4 per cent from 5 per cent a month ago.