Joe Higgins TD

The leaked recommendations of the Commission on Taxation point to a raft of new charges on wide swathes of the population. Here Joe Higgins outlines why these must be met with mass opposition.

The Commission on Taxation is continuation of the strategy of hammering low and middle income workers and their families to pay for the crisis inflicted on us as a result of the dealings of international capitalism but massively intensified in this country by the greed of its Irish wing, in particular the big property speculators and bankers.

Coming on the heels of the McCarthy report, calling for savage public sepnding cuts, If implemented, the combined measures would impoverish a generation in terms of the quality of our public services and the attack on disposable income. Moreover, they would have a savage deflationary effect when what is needed is major investment.

One of the leaks from the Taxation Commission suggests that a ‘congestion charge’ will be introduced in Dublin City, charging drivers for daring to go near the central part of our capital city. This surely would be among the most cynical of all the stealth taxes.

For decades bad planning and developers who patronised Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, the two main government parties in the state, combined to push people into scattered suburbs with minimal social infrastructure but most of all, left them without an efficient public transport system.

In many areas of Greater Dublin this is still the case. Now it is mooted that the victims of this mishandled mess should be hammered because they have to take cars to work since they cannot rely on public transport.

The powers that be know well that if all those who need to access Dublin city centre each day, especially for work, were to attempt to take whichever public transport was available, the system would simply seize up. Large crowds would be left standing at bus stops and suburban train stations. This ‘congestion charge’ is therefore, not primarily a way to ‘encourage’ people onto public transport but another cynical revenue grab.

A home tax and a water tax, are featuring prominently in the Taxation Commission Report. We had these before and it would be wise of the Government to remind itself of how they came to be abolished.

Water charges were first introduced in 1983 by a Fine Gael/Labour Party Coalition. They were immediately regarded as a hated new tax and a double cross on PAYE taxpayers who had been promised in the General Election of 1977 that local authority services such as water supply and refuse collection would be funded from general taxation.

So unpopular were the water charges, with large numbers refusing to pay them, that they were removed in the Dublin City and County Council areas toward the end of the 1980s. They were kept in place, however, in much of the country despite protests.

It was in 1994 that the water charges re emerged as a major issue when two newly established local authorities, Fingal and South Dublin, reintroduced them with the support of Councillors from Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, The Labour Party and the Greens. There was immediate and widespread resistance because ordinary taxpayers saw them as a direct attack on them especially following a massive tax amnesty granted to super rich tax cheats accorded by the Fianna Fail/Labour Party Government in 1993.

A major Boycott campaign began in 1994 and continued throughout 1995 and 1996. Despite strenuous attempts by the Councils and the Government to break the opposition with water disconnection and court action, the campaign had the support of tens of thousands of households.

The anti water charges battle became a major political issue featuring regularly in the media. The boycott could not be broken and the Government feared that a raft of campaign candidates would contest the looming 1997 General Election on this issue with the strong possibility of a number winning Dail seats. For these reasons, in December 1996, the Government announced the abolition of water charges countrywide.

The extent of the economic burden that water charges could have imposed on ordinary households was outlined when then Minister for Education said in 2007 that had abolition not happened, each household would now face annual bills of between €700 and €800 Euro.

There is no doubt that if a new property tax and water charges are reimposed a massive new campaign will be launched.

Reports suggest that Finance Minister Lenihan intends to delay the introduction of property and water taxes. There is, however, a suggestion that a carbon tax may be introduced in the December Budget. Could this have anything to do with setting up the Greens to be blamed for this since this is one of their proposals? It would be another cynical tax of course not in the interests of the environment but designed to squeeze more from working people.

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