How could it make massive savings in government expenditure while decrying vicious government cutbacks? The answer was to go after anyone and anything that looks like it earns more than €100,000 per year. Hit their wages, their pensions, their assets, their holiday homes, their inheritance, and their tax bill. It sounds fair on paper to someone earning the average industrial wage and struggling to make ends meet.
But the party ignores the possible consequences of these actions. It doesn't appear to grasp the implications for foreign direct investment, employment creation, investment and the fact that people who really do have lots of money can move it, and themselves, abroad very easily.
Its most high-profile initiative, which it originally estimated could raise €800m, was a wealth tax. Sinn Fein wanted it applied to individuals with net assets (after debt is taken into account) of over €1m. It would exclude agricultural land and business assets. But everything else would be up for grabs.
People who really have a lot of money are prepared to move it. Deposits held in Irish banks help fund loans to businesses. A modest €200,000 tax put on tax exiles in 2010 saw just 24 of them pay it. That fell to 14 in 2012.
But the document remains on shaky ground elsewhere, too. It wants a new 48pc tax rate for those earning over €100,000 per year, despite figures showing that a very significant percentage of the total income tax take comes from that group already.
Bookmarks