The Labour Party will promise voters in large urban areas a 15 per cent cut in property tax as part of its local election manifesto, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has confirmed.

In large urban areas where property values were high, people were paying higher property tax than in less densely populated areas and there was scope for a reduction, he said. The legislation governing property tax allowed local authorities to vary the charge by 15 per cent and Labour would propose that it should come down in large urban areas, he added.

On RTÉ radio's This Week he said Labour would tell voters in large urban areas that property tax would be reduced in councils where it was the leading party.

“When local authorities come to draw up budgets at the end of next year, those areas where property values are high, where property tax is high, where housing density is high and therefore where the income in the local authority is high, then they will be able to reduce property tax by up to 15 per cent,” said Mr Gilmore.

Local authorities would retain 80 per cent of the revenue collected through the property tax, he said. “I expect that where councils are led by the Labour Party after the local elections, then the Labour Party will pursue this policy in those local authorities,” he said. The proposal ties in with an earlier commitment by Mr Gilmore to do something for “hard-pressed families” when circumstances permitted.

He also said the full implications of the Louise O’Keeffe judgment by the European Court of Human Rights would be discussed by the Cabinet tomorrow. He said the issue of whether a redress scheme would be established to deal with other victims of abuse in schools was one of the issues to be considered.

Mr Gilmore said the European Court judgment would also have to be considered in the light of the relationship between schools and the Irish state. “There are profound implications for the relationship between the state and the schools and also the churches,” said the Tánaiste.