Sir, – People can pay this charge in the post office. No they can’t. Yes they can. No, they definitely cannot. Arrangements are being made to enable this. No they are not. You can pay in your local authority office. But, actually, you cannot pay in cash in the Dundrum office of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council – how many people know this? The date is ambiguous. No it is fixed.
I gather some leaflets were delivered, but I know nobody who received one. As a result, many people missed the deadline for direct debit payments because they did not have this information.
A mess? It surely is. I hope the Government gets its referendum ducks into a more organised row, if it sincerely wishes it to pass. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – On March 27th the household charge final reminder card was delivered by post. It informs me that “the €100 household charge will go towards paying for your essential local services”. But who is paying for this totally unnecessary, glossy, full-colour (with pictures of happy smiling children), card since I registered and paid my household charge several weeks ago? The waste by the authorities goes on and on and on. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Isn’t it time that the pro house charge compliant citizens got to express their rage and disgust at the hypocritical and downright dishonesty that many of the anti agitators are coming out with?
For instance a number of the participants at Saturday’s anti- charge rally at the National Stadium were vox-popped on RTÉ stating that they couldn’t afford the €100 yet they had come presumably many by car and public transport from as far away as Limerick, Tipperary, and west Cork.
How much did that cost in petrol/diesel or train and bus fares? While I can afford the €100 and have already paid it, I would have preferred not to have had to do so.
Let’s hear it for the thousands of other responsible citizens who have done similarly, yet whose voices are not being heard.
Of course I have sympathy for those who genuinely have difficulty in paying the charge, but I’m sure legitimate cases will receive appropriate consideration. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – We are bombarded with warnings that if the household charge of €100 isn’t paid by March 31st the penalties will kick in – but what is the penalty? Delay until June 30th and it’s 10 per cent, that’s €10; delay until December 31st and it’s 20 per cent, that’s €20; delay beyond that and it’s 30 per cent and 1 per cent per month. So, I ask, what’s the panic? If you pay now your money is gone; if you don’t want to pay and you aren’t yet certain about making a stand, why not hold off for a few months? Yes, you’re risking €10 – it might turn out to be the best tenner you (n)ever spent.
Don’t be intimidated, don’t be strong-armed. Since humankind first began to legislate it’s been making good law and bad; good people have always resisted those bad laws, thus was slavery challenged and ended, likewise the penal laws here, the tithe laws, the religious discrimination and the voting restrictions.
We got no say in whether or not we should pay the failed bonds of our failed banks, successive governments caving in to the threats of the ECB-dominated troika; we do have a say in this. Our Government tells us that this is mandated by the ECB/troika; let’s send the troika a message, let this March 31st deadline be our referendum on their demands and their deadlines – do not register, do not pay.
This is bad law, being imposed for bad reasons; good people have a duty to resist it. – Yours, etc,