The Labour Party has said it is opposed to the introduction of any tax on the family home.
A property tax has been proposed as a way to help the Government address its fiscal deficit.
The tax was flagged in last week’s economic forecast by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) as a means to help the Government raise €3 billion in savings.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore today said he opposed the idea as many people had already paid a property tax in the form of stamp duty.
People who are struggling to pay their mortgage cannot be asked to pay a property tax on top of that, he said.
"It would be perverse to ask people to pay a property tax on a property on which they are paying a mortgage and the size of the mortgage is now in many cases more than what the value of what the property is worth," he added.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Today with Pat Kenny programme, Mr Gilmore said the key to getting the economy out of the trouble it's in "is to get people back to work".
“In that respect the Labour Party has put forward a number of suggestions . . . we have suggested first of all that as a country we should establish a strategic investment bank,” he said.
Mr Gilmore said the object of the bank would be to make credit available for small and medium businesses and to provide finance for start up companies.
"Everywhere I go I hear business people say that they are finding it difficult to access credit," he said.