Last night, a very dignified pensioner asked me at the meeting if it was true that the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, had one time condemned tax on the home as wrong, and I said that I would have the opportunity to ask him directly this morning. Does the Taoiseach recognise

It is morally unjust and unfair to tax a person’s home, and by so doing grind him into the ground.
It reminds me of a vampire tax in that it drives a stake through the heart of home ownership, through enthusiasm and initiative, and sucks the life blood of people who want to own their own home and better their position.

Why did the Government not use the lead-up to the summit to lay down demands about the disastrous consequences of the bailout of the European financial system on the backs of the Irish people? Why did the Taoiseach grossly undermine demands for getting rid of the Anglo promissory notes madness which will break the State when, in Davos and in front of the world’s capitalist and media establishment, he carelessly blamed the Irish people’s alleged greed for the financial crash instead of placing the responsibility with the crazed operations of the casino financial markets and their profiteering and speculation?

Is it any wonder photographs have appeared in the media around the world today showing President Sarkozy patting the Taoiseach on the head? I noticed in some of the television shots that a number of other prime ministers also patted him on the head as they passed him.

FAQ on the Household Tax

1. What is the Household tax?

The household tax is a new tax that every home owner in the country is to be charged, the Fine Gael and Labour government is imposing a blanket ‘Household Tax’ that will affect everyone the same. From January 2012 you will be asked to pay €100 a year just to live in your own home. This is an unjust tax because a millionaire and a low-paid worker both pay the same charge. €100 may mean nothing to Tony O’Reilly – but it will cause real hardship to people who can barely pay their mortgages. You will be required to register online to make your payment to the government.

2. But isn’t it going to be replaced by a property tax which will be based on the value of the house and will be fairer and more progressive?

It’s true that in response to criticisms of the flat nature of the household tax, the government have announced their intention to bring forward the introduction of the full property tax – probably to 2013. But this tax will be neither ‘fair’ nor ‘progressive’.

The average house can expect to pay about €800 per year – plus another €500 in water taxes from 2014. The 2009 Commission on Taxation suggested that houses valued between €150,000 and €300,000 should be levied with a property tax of €563. John Fitzgerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute (the government’s semi-official economic think-tank) has said that the new taxes should be as high as €1300 per annum on the average household. There’s not much ‘fair’ about that when we’ve already been hit with pay cuts, job losses, Universal Social Charge, VAT increases etc.

A lot of nonsense has been written about the ‘progressive’ nature of such a property tax and the need to ‘expand the tax base’. Stephen Collins in the Irish Times claimed that “extra taxes should not be imposed on work but on fixed assets like property”. But as ordinary workers, we only have one source of income – that which we get from our work. So if we have to pay a property tax we have to pay it out of the wages we earn. Unlike the wealthy sections of society we don’t have alternative sources of income such as dividends, rent etc

What is proposed is not a property tax in the real sense – one which would be levied on the wealth and assets held by the wealthiest sections of society. A real property tax would be geared at making sure that those who own real wealth would be forced to pay more taxes. Instead what is proposed is simply a home tax which if allowed to be implemented will force those of us on low and middle incomes to pay more while continuing to let the wealthy off scot free.

The government intend to use the household tax registration process to build up the database they need to introduce the property tax and the water tax. If we register we will be making it easier for them to introduce these higher taxes.

3. Isn’t property tax something the left is in favour of?

The household tax is not a traditional property tax. We are in favour of taxing wealth not supporting a flat tax that will mean Bono pays the same every year for his mansion in Killiney as a former council tenant living in a working class estate. This tax is no better than Thatcher’s poll tax, it is not fair and does not make economic sense to be taking yet more money from ordinary people that spend their income. It will increase over time and just like the bin charges it will soon apply to every house across the country.

4. How can I resist?

In order to pay this tax, the government expects everyone to go online and register to pay it. The simple way of resisting the tax is to refuse to register and refuse to pay. If everyone together refuses to register and pay, the government will find it almost impossible to impose this tax on us.

5. What are the possible consequences if I don’t register?

The legislation allows for a fine of up to €2,500 for failing to register by 31st March. But this is not an automatic fine. Under the legislation people who don’t register have to be brought to court and have a case proved against them that they did not register.

This is where the importance of building a mass campaign comes in. The government wants 1.8 million households to register by the end of March. But imagine the situation if a million plus households do not register. It would be absolutely impossible for them to take a million people to court.

And just as we did during the campaign against water charges in Dublin in the 1990s, the campaign will organise legal representation for anyone who is taken to court. By challenging each case, we can ensure that the system becomes completely clogged up. As also happened during the campaign against water charges, if someone in an area is taken to court we can organise to ensure that hundreds of fellow non-payers turn up to support them.

6. I’ve heard that they are going to deduct fines for not registering – or the tax itself – from people’s wages or social welfare

Under current legislation this is not possible. To allow the government to do this would require a change in the law. Again if we build a mass campaign and if a million households are collectively saying to the government ‘your tax is unacceptable to us’ they are much less likely to try to bring forward such legislation. As it develops, the Campaign will build links with trade unions and will be calling on trade unionists to boycott any work that would assist the government in organising deductions.

7. I don’t want to register but I’m still worried that I might end up with a big fine. What if I don’t register but loads of people do? Those of us who haven’t registered will be left vulnerable.

According to the legislation, nobody has to register until the end of March. Because of the threats some people may be considering registering despite not wanting to. But our advice is – don’t do it yet.

Why not wait until St Patrick’s Day (two weeks before the registration deadline) and see how the Campaign goes. At that time you will hopefully see that we have enough non-payers to defeat the Government and to stop them from robbing you and your household.

In the meantime it’s important that as well as not registering yourself you do all that you can to convince your friends, neighbours, family members, workmates etc not to register either. Everybody has a part to play in convincing others to resist this tax. Don’t just leave it to others but get involved and do your own bit.

8. But haven’t loads of people registered already.

In fact no. Despite attempts at media spin regarding the numbers who have registered less than 30,000 people have registered just under 2 weeks into the year (as of Thurs. 13th).

To put that figure into context: the government want 1.8 million households to register by 31st March (1.6 million that are expected to pay and 200,000 that have to register to claim a waiver) – that would require 150,000 households to register every week. 30,000 in just under 2 weeks is a long way short of that. In fact only 1.7% of those expected to register have done so. That makes a non-registration rate of 98.3%.

9. Isn’t there a danger I’ll end up with a big debt, as happened to some people in Dublin after the bin tax campaign?

This campaign, unlike the bin charges, is a nationwide campaign that will be easier to fight if we can get our communities organised to resist. Ultimately the bin tax campaign lost because not enough people joined the non-payment campaign. The challenge is to build a campaign that has mass involvement.

It still remains the case that anyone who refused to pay for bin charges during the bin charges campaign will pay significantly less than those that chose to pay from the beginning. We know from past experience that only mass non payment and industrial action by workers who lost their jobs through the privatisation of waste collection could have forced the government to back down.

We can however beat the Household Tax if we all join together in a mass non-payment campaign, build membership of the campaign through the €5 membership fee and get onto the streets in large numbers. Over the coming months we will build the campaign across the country. Already there have been meetings of hundreds and we are well on the way to constructing a solid nationwide campaign.
These charges can be defeated by mass popular resistance. In 1990, huge numbers protested against the ‘poll tax’ in Britain and Maggie Thatcher was driven out of office. Resistance worked.

In the 1990s, the Irish government was forced to withdraw water charges from domestic users because of a boycott campaign. Resistance worked again.

10. Who is organising the campaign?

The campaign was initiated by political organisations from across the left, trade unionists, representatives of residents’ associations and ordinary people willing to take a stand and say Enough is Enough.

The objective is to build local campaigns in every area which will be run by the members and which will then send delegates to the Dublin and national steering committees. The strength of the campaign will be the involvement of ordinary people so please do get involved and help to get our communities organised.

11. What can I do to help?
The strength of the campaign is in mass participation so we need everyone to get involved to whatever extent you can.

First don’t register.

Put a ‘We’re Not Paying’ poster in your window and a car sticker on your car. If people see posters and stickers up around the place, it helps create awareness of the campaign, encourages others not to pay and gives confidence to those who may feel intimidated into paying.

Take some Campaign newsletters, posters and car stickers to give to your neighbours, friends, workmates, family members etc. Do your bit to convince others to be part of the campaign.

Help out with your local campaign group when we go out to canvass your area.

Attend your local activists’ meetings to help plan the campaign locally.

If there hasn’t been a local meeting in your area, help to organise one. The campaign can provide people to help with this and provide speakers etc if necessary. Advertise it well with posters in local shops and door to door leafleting.

Put a resolution to your residents’ association or trade union meeting to support the campaign of non-payment and organise together.

Become a member of the Campaign – the €5 membership fee will go towards producing Campaign materials such as newsletters, posters, car stickers etc and also to build up a legal defence fund.

12. Isn’t the money raised going to improve our local services?

Not one cent from the household tax will be used to improve local council services. Not one cent will be used to improve services such as health and education. The money will be used to bail out the bankers and the speculators. By taking money out of the pockets of ordinary people they will depress demand for goods and services and make the crisis worse, not better.

Central government funding for local councils has been cut. The local Council is being further starved of funds and instead the money that used to pay for services such as lighting, housing, cleansing etc. is going to bail out private bank speculation.

For three years now Fianna Fail, The Green Party, Fine Gael and Labour have been making us foot the bill for the crimes of bankers and speculators. This is a great opportunity to strike back and start the job of reversing the tide. This is our chance to take a stand and show our opposition to austerity policies. Let’s make sure we use it!

13. €100 isn’t that much really, why should I have the stress of this debt around my neck?

Do not be fooled. The government has every intention of increasing this tax on an annual or bi annual basis. Remember the figures – The average house can expect to pay about €800 per year – plus another €500 in water taxes from 2014. The 2009 Commission on Taxation suggested that houses valued between €150,000 and €300,000 should be levied with a property tax of €563. John Fitzgerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute (the government’s semi-official economic think-tank) has said that the new taxes should be as high as €1300 per annum on the average household.

If you do not resist this charge now then you will be paying up to thousands every year. The government can increase this charge anytime they like. We must defeat this now at registration stage or you will soon be paying huge volumes of extra tax for absolutely nothing new in return.

There are vast amounts of wealth in this country, the top 1% have over €100 billion tucked away. 33,000 millionaires own wealth of €121 billion, the 300 richest people are reported to be worth close to €50 billion.

A new wealth or asset tax on those that can afford to pay would generate far more money than this new household tax, this is money that otherwise would not be used in our society. We could employ thousands on the dole overnight if the political will was there. This is the type of property/wealth tax we should strive to introduce. If you pay, it will be €100 now and thousands later. Resist now or pay later!

This is referred to in a sinister turn of phrase as the “prediction of exit date”, something one might associate more with sentencing in a capital trial rather than with how people who find themselves in difficult circumstances should be treated. If the unemployed person is not off the live register by that date, he or she will face what has been referred to as a “challenging interview”.

Apparently, senior officials in the Department are referring to this among themselves as “Operation Transformation”, a reference to an RTE project as part of which people who consider themselves to be overweight or seriously obese undertake a stringent programme to overcome the problem.

The workers are victims of the private equity vulture company, Lion Capital, which in the most callous way planned to walk away from its workforce to maximise its profit, handing it over to another company which will be equally ruthless, and treating these workers in the most disgusting fashion. This is capitalism red in tooth and claw and must be challenged.

Fine Gael and Labour Party Deputies come here and champion workers. They are the people who make and stand over the laws. For a change, let us have emergency laws to allow workers to receive their rights and to stop these gangsters behaving in this gangster-like fashion.

I call on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and its leaders to come out of hiding and meet fire with fire. They should mobilise the power of working people in the country to stand together with the Vita Cortex and La Senza workers. Workers standing together will show the power they have, forcing the Government to act and these companies to pay what they should.

Does he not see the significant contradiction in a supposedly sovereign Dáil meeting when, 100 metres from here, the EU, IMF and ECB are in Government Buildings enforcing the diktat of private institutions and European financial markets to the effect that their speculators must be repaid tens of billions of euro by the Irish people for gambling private debts and demanding that the Government channel these tens of billions of euro while it shreds jobs, living standards and health and education services?

Does the Taoiseach not accept that the Government is not much more than a puppet government? Does he not see that its decision to continue almost identically the bailout and austerity policy of its predecessor is poisoning every aspect of life in the State?

Is it not clear that Revenue, for example, felt under considerable pressure when it sent thousands of letters scarifying pensioners to beat out the €45 million that the Minister for Finance secretly, quietly and sneakily included in the budget?

Does the Taoiseach see this household tax is a burden too far? Starting at €100, everyone knows it will rise quickly to €1,000 with the EU-IMF driving it as well. Does the Taoiseach understand this will be met with a massive campaign of opposition from Donegal to Wexford, from Kerry right back to Dublin? The Taoiseach’s disgraceful campaign of intimidation of threatening householders with fines of €2,500 for non-registration will be resisted. The Taoiseach has set March 31 as a deadline. Does he know there is already a massive campaign beginning by the 1.6 million householders of low and middle income workers to boycott this tax?

This is their opportunity to have their own referendum on these ruinous austerity polices. They are being called on not to register in January, February or the first half of March when the Government cannot touch them. We will arrive at the end of March with the bulk of the 1.6 million householders having boycotted the registration, and we can then continue en mass to refuse to register and refuse to pay this unjust tax.

The budget must also be seen in the context of the ignominious collapse of Ireland’s of the speculation fest in the form of the manipulation of the property market in this State, which drove the price of building land and homes to stratospheric levels reaping obscene profits for speculation in the form of Irish banks, property developers and major builders underwritten by massive by massive loans from European banks – all at a huge cost to a generation of young working people, decimated by this legalised gangsterism.

This disastrous speculation, which dislocated the entire economy was underwritten not just by the policies of FF/PDs but acquiesced in by the Fine Gael Party and never seriously or radically challenged by the Labour Party despite some verbal objections.

What we are dealing with today is not just the consequences of the inevitable collapse of this national pyramid scheme but more specifically the policy response to it by first the FF/GP Government and now the FG/LP Government. It is that policy that has plunged our society into unprecedented crisis with disastrous consequences for our people.
It was a criminal policy decision that the tens of billions of Euro of debt run up by private financial corporations – both the Irish and European – should be placed on the shoulders of the Irish people as a whole.

In his ‘Address to the Nation’ on Sunday night Taoiseach Enda Kenny said solemnly, ‘we will also do all we can to protect the most vulnerable in our communities – our children, the sick and the elderly.’ Then the very next day when he rose to deliver Part 1 of Budget 2012, the Taoiseach’s Minister for Public Expenditure, Brendan Howlin, announced sickening hits on the very same ‘children, the sick and the elderly.’ The Taoiseach did not apologise for his misleading the nation.

The most important way to react to this Budget is not to lose sight of the bigger picture onto which it is painted. The Budget copperfastens the Fine Gael/Labour continuation, almost to the letter, of the discredited policies of its predecessors, Fianna Fail and the Greens. That policy is to capitulate to the dictates of the speculators in the financial markets that the bad gambling debts of private banks and hedge funds should be transferred onto the shoulders of working people, pensioners, students and the poor in this State. Living standards and public services must be eviscerated in this process.

It is this criminal policy of austerity that this week dictated that people unfortunate enough to have to depend on disability allowances up to 22 years of age will see those allowances cut by thousands of Euro in what must be the most callous measure in the Budget. It dictated that parents with three and more children will have their child benefit cut significantly. It dictated that old and poor people depending on fuel allowances will have those cut significantly.
The Budget represents a substantial betrayal by the Labour Party of substantial numbers who voted for it on the strength of commitments made during the campaign. Students who were promised that Labour would not only not raise the registration fee but cancel a previous increase must feel bitterly short changed as will their parents.

The choice made by Fine Gael and Labour is that it is ordinary people who will continue to pay for the crisis ridden financial markets system. Only the United Left Alliance has highlighted during the Budget process that there are other substantial choices. This relates to substantial assets and financial resources that are in the hand of the very wealthiest people in this State.

The Central Statistics Office has calculated total wealth held in the State, less debts and loans, to come to €458 billion. Credit Suisse, a multinational financial services company, calculated in its 2011 Global Wealth Report that in the Republic of Ireland the top 5% of the population held 46.8% of the wealth. That gives them a total €219 billion in financial and other assets. This wealth is untouched as far as any tax is concerned.
If this wealth was taxed in 2012 at, say, 5%, it would yield €10 billion. This would mean that all the painful cuts inflicted on the poor and low and middle income workers in the Budget would be unnecessary. There are also other sources of income from the wealthiest that could be tapped for resources.

With a progressive taxation policy it would be possible to have substantial assets to invest in emergency job creation in major public infrastructure that could create tens of thousands of jobs and in the process begin to recreate this broken economy.

Does the Taoiseach accept that at the heart of the political establishment in this State, there is a monumental hypocrisy? When the same cuts in child benefit and in other areas that were delivered and promised yesterday were delivered last year by Fianna Fáil, they were greeted with shrieks of opposition from the main Fine Gael and Labour Party spokesmen, shrieks that would put a swarm of vuvuzelas to silence and yet they are the very people recommending them this year. I watched the Taoiseach’s so called state of the nation address and read it again and again.

I wondered what it was all for when he repeated merely the platitudes of nine months ago. When he said the Government would do all it can to protect the most vulnerable, our children, the sick and the elderly, can I ask him to agree he is guilty of the most monumental hypocrisy since yesterday the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform attacked the children, the sick and the elderly in many forms? I ask him to acknowledge that he did not make the difficult choices, as he claimed, but continued to obey the diktats of the sharks in the financial markets, orchestrated by Merkel and Sarkozy, that working and poor people must pay for the financial crisis of the European banking system.

Is the Taoiseach aware that there are substantial assets and wealth held by the very richest in this society that are absolutely untouched by this Government? Does he know the Central Statistics Office in a survey totalled the net financial and other assets for 2010 in this State at €468 billion after liabilities and debt, and that Credit Suisse, the multinational financial services company, estimated the wealthiest 5% in this State owned 46% of those assets, giving them €219 billion net of loans? When a 5% tax on that would yield €10 billion, why does the Taoiseach not look in that direction and take from those who would not even feel it rather than feeling free to hit the disabled, the children, the sick and the elderly?

Some families used the company to save for future costs like children’s schoolbooks and uniforms, the costs associated with their children going to college, or the cost of medical and dental treatment. At this time of the year, it is worth remembering that many families used Home Payments Limited as a savings bank to budget for Christmas-related expenditure.

The families and individuals who have been badly burned by the collapse of this company have lost hundreds or thousands of euro – up to €10,000, in some cases. Such a loss would not be noticed by former Ministers who receive pensions of €150,000 a year, or serving bankers who are paid €500,000 a year. It is an absolute fortune for an ordinary family, however, as it represents a huge saving and sacrifice. Ordinary people have been burned because this company scandalously succumbed to the siren call of the property market and speculated in it.

They will lose much of what they had on deposit because the company is in liquidation. I have been told by the liquidator that there will not be a settlement until well into next year, if at all. Even though it was not required to do so, four weeks ago the Government gave €700 million to speculators in Anglo Irish Bank to make good their bad debts. With three weeks to go to Christmas, will the Government establish an emergency compensation fund for the victims of this company? The Tánaiste is aware that the State has quite rightly compensated the victims of floods and storms, etc., in the past. This collapse of this company is as much of a blow to these individuals and families as a storm or a flood. Will the Government establish an emergency fund now to ensure these people do not suffer unduly this Christmas?

A week before the general election the Tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Gilmore, said, “The Labour Party will not agree to having child benefit cut; Fine Gael needs to drop its plans to cut it.” Will the Taoiseach make an honest man of the Tánaiste this morning and, more importantly, on budget day? The programme for Government states the Government “will maintain social welfare rates”. Will the Taoiseach make an honest woman of the Minister for Social Protection this morning and, more importantly, on budget day?

The Labour Party manifesto states, “Labour believes the €500 increase in student service charges to €2,000 is a step too far. Labour will reverse the increase”. Will the Taoiseach make an honest party of the Labour Party on budget day? Will he insist on honesty prevailing on budget day?

The Minister for Finance announced a 0.6% levy on pensions for four years to fund the so-called jobs initiative. Tara miners have exposed the truth; this translates into a savage 10% levy on their modest pensions of €10,000 each year for four years. Will the Taoiseach restore honesty? I want a simple yes or no answer; as I am not asking for the budget, the Taoiseach should not say I am. I want to see if he will stand by his dictum that honesty is the only policy and honour the commitments made by his partners in government and his own party.

Does the Taoiseach agree that his own programme for Government and the words he just used indicating that Ireland would become a centre of excellence in the management of carbon, or pollution, and that Ireland would become a leading player in the global pollution market are two diametrically opposed ideas? They are mutually exclusive. Does the Taoiseach find it incredible that carbon credits – or the licence to pollute – are the subject of massive speculation by hedge funds and other sharks in the financial markets?

It is beyond belief that the same institutions, made up of sharks and charlatans, which brought the economies of the West to destruction over the past three years as a result of wild financial gambling, are entrusted with this method allegedly to reduce pollution?

Is the Taoiseach aware that in the European Union, reports have indicated that carbon trading has been a dismal failure in reducing pollution and carbon credits are grossly oversupplied, allowing polluters to purchase them cheaply and to continue polluting? The price paid by the consumers has the cost of the credit included. Is the Taoiseach aware that in the European Union there has been massive fraud in pollution credits speculation, as European taxpayers have been swindled out of billions of euro by fraudsters in this so-called market? Will the Taoiseach change the policy, going with his first path of excellence in reducing pollution and environmental management? He should not pursue the mad methods of the markets.

Since I raised this issue with the Taoiseach in May, there have been some important developments. Scandalously, Homebond, the builders’ and developers’ insurance scheme, cynically, coldly and heartlessly used a single court case to wash its hands of its responsibility to the homeowners, who thought they had comfort by way of this insurance scheme, and is walking away. Last week, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government announced he was setting up a panel to look into the pyrite crisis. That is a start, but the his statement is deeply worrying. He said, “This is, of course, a civil matter to which the State is not a party or in any way liable”. This is deeply worrying for affected homeowners who are in touch weekly with public representatives because the implication is that they will be left with their homes coming apart at the seams while a gaggle of developers, builders and insurance companies slug it out for years in the courts to try and evade their responsibilities.

I put it to the Taoiseach that the Minister’s statement is based on a wrong premise. The State has a serious responsibility because it and its agencies were negligent in that the building regulator were negligent in not supervising the construction and the materials going into these homes when it had known about pyrites for decades. Also, the Homebond scheme was deeply flawed from the outset, from when it was set up in 1978. It is not all the fault of Fianna Fáil. Fine Gael and Labour were in Government twice in that time.

The economic dislocation to the towns concerned, particularly Mullingar, Clonmel and Cavan with around 200 soldiers in each barracks, will be considerable. In Clonmel, PDFORRA estimate a loss of €9-10 million per annum to the town’s economy. That is a loss to shops, restaurants, small enterprises and trades and is equivalent to a small size factory or workplace closing down. There are no economic benefits to the State. No savings will be made, because moving the soldiers and their families will mean refurbishment and other extensive costs. What is the point when this is hitting the same domestic economy as the Government’s general austerity policy?

This morning, by agreement with the Irish embassy in Tel Aviv, seven of those citizens were to be put on a British Airways flight. They were brought to the airport and driven around before Israeli security forces prevented them from boarding their aircraft and brought them back to prison, where they are now being held incommunicado. For the past six days, citizens of this State, including an MEP, councillors and others of equal merit, have been kept in an Israeli jail and subjected to continuous harassment, strip searches, disorientation techniques and humiliation.

The staff of the Irish embassy have worked hard but, while they have done their job, the Tánaiste, as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of this State, has not acted as he should to condemn this action and demand the immediate release of these citizens. I ask him to summon the Israeli ambassador as soon as he leaves this Chamber to give him one hour to reveal the details on the release and safe return of our citizens. If he does not comply, I ask the Tánaiste to expel him. At least we can thereby make it clear to the world that the people of this country and internationally will not stand for Israel’s actions in imprisoning of the people of Gaza and acting like pirates.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is expecting an unprecedented level of demand for its services from desperate individuals and families this Christmas. Should the disaster that is the Greek economy not make the Tánaiste re-think his blind adherence to this policy? Three years ago, the Greek people were promised that if they accepted the savage programme of cuts they would be on the way to recovery by now. Instead, they have been plunged into greater misery and more crises. Will the Tánaiste explain the point of the Irish Labour Party given that it brings to the debate on the current crisis absolutely nothing different in the slightest from Merkel, Sarkozy and all the high priests and hawks of right wing, neoliberal capitalism?

The Government’s attitude to the victims of ruthless blackmail by property speculators and bankers has been insulting and begrudging. It constantly implies that an army of borrowers are waiting to cheat on their mortgages in order to excuse its inaction. Simply by an accident of birth dates, an entire generation is in mortgage bondage to the banks but the Government does not want to know.

The Taoiseach knows about the man who fell among thieves while travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was left dazed and badly beaten by the side of the road. The first passersby to come along were a priest and a Levite, who diverted their gaze and no doubt murmured to themselves that he must have done something to deserve it. That is the Government’s response to the victims of the bankers and the developers.

They gouged from ordinary workers who needed a home those obscene prices and the massive monthly mortgages are now creating a major crisis as workers lose their jobs and experience draconian cuts to their incomes, including budget cuts, causing enormous distress and mental suffering.

The Taoiseach knows that but the Keane report tinkers around the problem, offering guidelines to banks, which are “strongly encouraged” to follow them. Is it serious that the very institutions that were central to the profiteering and speculation that caused this crisis are now largely being looked at to resolve it? Their victims are now being thrown to the tender mercies of the banks. It is like sending a bunch of marauding foxes that had raided a henhouse back to give mouth to mouth resuscitation to their victims. Is the Government going to tolerate this situation?

Is it not clear that the substance to a solution is to revise downwards the blackmail prices people were forced to pay for their homes to real value of today and to calibrate downward the monthly repayments so workers can resume meeting their commitments and stay in their homes? These people were victims of these conspirators for profit, supported by the Government. Indeed, Fine Gael was very quiet on the speculation that was going on. Can the Taoiseach look home-owning taxpayers in the eye and say that the Government will not allow any write-down of what is tied around their necks when three weeks from now, he will authorise a €700 million payment to an unsecured Anglo Irish Bank bondholder, with €3.5 billion to be paid by the end of June? What will the Government do? Was this discussed this morning and what was the Taoiseach’s decision?

Today, however, there was devastating news. Staff in the hospital received a memo stating that 12 of 31 beds in the acute Laurel ward are closed with immediate effect and a surgical day ward with 24 beds will shortly be closed for two weeks and will return with only 8 of the 24 beds. This means that 30 to 40 day procedures will now be reduced to ten or 13. This is devastating news for the staff, the patients and especially for those suffering on waiting lists, and it arises from the most draconian cuts. In 2009 the hospital had a budget of €104 million; this year that budget is €84 million, a devastating 20% cut. The HSE acknowledges this is one of the best and most efficient hospitals in the country. In what is termed “activity” it has returned 4% over target and is supremely successful, but now it is being hammered into the ground with enormous consequences for the sick and suffering who languish for longer periods on waiting lists.