The new PD tax plan would bring the top income tax rate from 41% to 38%, and the standard rate from 20% to 18%, during the lifetime of the next government.

The announcement was made by PD leader Michael McDowell at his party's conference in Wexford last night. The PDs also want an overhaul of the current stampduty regime with concessions targeted at first-time buyers.

The PD income-tax proposal matches the 18% lower rate promised by Labour last weekend, but significantly McDowell also wants a three-point cut in the top rate of income tax. The current Fianna FA il/PD coaltion has said, if re-elected, it would cut the top rate to 40% in next December's budget. Reducing the top rate to 38%, as the PDs are now proposing, would cost in the region of Euro1bn while cutting the standard rate to 18% would cost a similar amount.

McDowell's speech last night was also marked by an absence of his recent strident references to the Fine Gael/Labour alternative coalition. However, he said the PDs "were not Johnny-Come-Latelys to low rates of taxation or to the concept of freeing people's incomes so that they can make a good life for themselves and their families".

In last night's live televised address, his first since becoming PD leader, McDowell warned voters that "if Ireland sleepwalks into electing a DA il in which the balance of power is held by an incoherent patchwork of incompatible parties, that DA il will end up with a makeshift, confused and fragmented government".