Sir, – Now that the Government is preparing for the introduction of a real property tax next year, may I suggest they scrap the separate TV licence and include an extra charge in the property tax to cover information infrastructure and TV licence?
The amount to be included should be less than the current TV licence as all property owners should pay the charge. Perhaps there should be an opt-out facility for those (few) properties that do not use internet and/or telephone infrastructure nor have TVs installed.
The proceeds of this charge could be distributed to the television, telephone and perhaps radio operators in the country.
This should save the significant cost of collecting the TV licence and chasing those who do not pay. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Like many others I very reluctantly paid my household charge. I have never been so hesitant or upset about paying a tax.
The reason I paid it is that I don’t want the hassle of a “fine” and I felt also that I was being bullied by Minister Phil Hogan into paying it.
I would not feel so aggrieved if I trusted that the Government were planning to reform the Oireachtas. Were we not to have a referendum on the Seanad this year (a luxury we cannot afford)? How can Government Ministers still have the audacity to claim so many expenses and feel no shame? I’m thinking of laundry expenses, travel and accommodation expenses (especially for those living in Dublin and nearby).
When are we going to see the numbers of TDs reduced? Does one lose one’s integrity and sense of fair play when one enters government? Mr Kenny and his team need to show us that they are not like previous governments and that they deserve the votes of those who had naively hoped that they were different and would adhere to their pre-election promises! It has never been so important to lead by example. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The final count on the household tax is in last Tuesday’s post. The majority of Irish households voted “No”. This was a referendum, not officially sanctioned by government but a referendum all the same, held and decisively decided by the people of Ireland.
It was a referendum because the people decided to make it so, to take the household tax issue, consider it, debate it and decide it among themselves. And it was appropriate that it be decided in this way because government had crossed a line. It had stepped over the threshold of our homes.
If Minister Phil Hogan is struggling to understand what happened, he need only ask Enda Kenny, who told the Dáil 15 years ago, “It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a person’s home.” There is a central principle in natural law which is fundamental to the Irish Constitution that every person has an innate dignity and that government exists to guarantee that dignity.
In order to live our dignity, we must have the things that are essential to our human nature. In the physical realm this means that we must have air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, clothing to cover ourselves and shelter from the elements. Similarly in the intellectual, spiritual and emotional sphere our human nature has essential requirements. It is these essentials that are the basis of human rights, or to state it simply we have an inalienable right to whatever is necessary to maintain human life and dignity.
It is in light of this principle that Mr Kenny was correct. It is morally wrong to tax what is essential to the human person. No one can legitimately take away a human right or potentially deny it through taxation. If a government can tax something essential it can take it away if the tax is not paid. This is an absurdity and an injustice.
Until the current Government came to power, the principle that what is essential is a right and therefore beyond tax has been for the most part respected.
In my opinion, it is this principle of human dignity rather than any other reason suggested by Minister Hogan that accounts for the high “No” vote. Government should be ashamed that it used and is still using fear tactics to force people to betray what they know deep in their hearts is right. I know some people who paid the tax, but no one who felt good about it.
We as a people have a deep and sad memory of another government, a foreign government, that transgressed this principle as they trampled the human dignity of our ancestors. This regime also imposed a levy on homes by taxing roofs and windows. In rural areas, we can still see the crumbling remains of roofless and almost windowless houses.
We have had our referendum. The vote was a resounding “No”. It is time to accede to the people’s judgment and return the money that has been paid to date. If there is to be a house tax it must exempt primary and therefore essential residences and be confined to extra dwellings.
Government must not be tempted, as has happened in the past, to ignore the people’s “No” and go back to them with fear and spin to force a different answer.