I will not be bullied, frightened, intimidated, bribed or cajoled into paying the Household Tax. Our government should be respectful of its electorate and it is not right that the people should be afraid of its government. Governments can only govern with the consent of its people.
Actually I am in favour of a property tax. We certainly do need to broaden the tax base. However what is currently proposed is wrong – wrong time, wrong place and definitely for the wrong reasons.
Let’s start with the reasons. This tax is being introduced at the behest of the Troika. We are told that this is part of our bailout terms. Leaving our current account deficit to one side for the moment, bailing out failed and failing banks is morally, ethically and economically wrong. Economically wrong because it is ultimately unsustainable. It’s almost a certainty that Ireland will have to default on its debts when the can eventually runs out of road. This may happen sooner rather than later. Our economy is in recession again and its makes default all the more likely. So all our efforts will have been for nothing. Our economy will stagnate and decline for years while we eagerly comply with the bailout terms. This one and the next one and probably the next one after that. It is time to say stop. Our society, economy and country has already been damaged enough.
I am not on my own in these opinions. This is what Fine Gael and Labour stood for, before they were elected. Remember “burn the bondholders”, “not a cent more to the banks” and it was definitely to be "Dublin’s way not Frankfurt’s". This government has a crisis of credibility. Meanwhile bankers and politicians and other insiders continue to draw huge salaries, allowances and pensions all at the state’s expense. Nothing has changed here then.
Leaving the economic arguments aside morally why should I as an Irish citizen and indeed my children and their children have the pay for the debts of private banking institutions. Why should our children’s education and the health and welfare of our population be sacrificed to pay the gambling debts of corrupt and incompetent banks. This is fundamentally unfair.
It’s the wrong time. Taking more money out of the economy by means of taxation is adding to the vicious circle that we find ourselves in. Less money in the economy means less spending which means less taxes requiring more cuts and more taxes and so off we go again. Talk of future property taxes, household charges, water charges, septic tanks charges all dampen peoples appetite for spending further fuelling recession. People can do the maths. This property tax is not being introduced to generate €160 million a year. Perhaps an average household charge of €1000 per year, bringing in €1.6 billion is nearer what’s anticipated.
This tax is definitely in the wrong place. Let’s not be fooled it is definitely not about funding local services. If the government were serious about funding local services they would start with desperately needed fundamental reforms of our inefficient local authority system which consumes about €6 billion a year to sustain itself. They would rid the country of the plethora of Quangos, committees, working parties, and expert groups. However there is no enthusiasm in this government to fix our current account deficit by deflating the public sector spending bubble created over the Celtic Tiger years. Tax increases, new taxes – stealth or otherwise and charges are favoured by this government rather than any real reform.
It’s time to stay stop. No to the household charge. No to bailing out the banks. No to the ECB. And no to Recession
