ACP, I agree, the one thing we cannot afford to throw away in this country is access to education. We have a small population and we need to make sure that anyone who wants to be education at third level has that chance. There is a need for reform though.

ECP when I was in college there wasn’t a single person who was genuinely in need of a grant receiving one and plenty who had absolutely no need who were receiving one! It seems your parents must be farmers/self employed in this country to receive a grant! I never applied for or required a grant but just something that was very evident in my college!

Actually the disadvantaged still have access to grants, its the working who just miss out on the cut off for grants who miss out the most. The parents earn too much to qualify for a grant, but can’t afford to pay for college either. Seems like things are pretty much back to where twenty years ago before free fees.

Don’t aspire to anything just watch Vincent browne and listen to Constantine and understand that after paying tax for 33 years that it’s rather pointed when we are paying extra levys same time as banks being bailed out to prop up the European experiment .

Eilish it is not that simple. Even if the banks were never bailed out we would have these additional taxes. Fianna Fail doubled public spending over a ten year period using taxes largely sourced from a property ponzi scheme. Once the bubble burst…..we know the rest.

@ Eilish – to clarify this; you have no aspirations to political life. So you are not the same Eilish Deegan who was one of the first members of Sli Nios Fearr and who is very active in campaigning for them on this very website? I think that could be justifiably classed as having “political aspirations”. And, as another commenter mentioned above, please, please, please reply to comments in that comment thread, and not in a different comment thread. It tends to annoy and make it more difficult to take part in a discussion with you.

That’s money that the people paying PRD will never see again. Whatever your feelings on public sector pensions (and I know they can vary widely), the pension related deduction does not lead to an increased pension on retirement.

Jthm am not the only annoying one.what amazes me is how many people complain about the state of the country but do absolutely nothing to actively change things .well martin critten started sli nios fearr as a reaction to this and I think he s doing a great job and so do a lot of other people as he is getting a lot of support.but I don’t think supporting a cause makes u an aspiring politico.we need things to b turned around and go right in this country and endless talk with no action does not get us anyplace.if u want to do something other than talk get involved,bring ur thoughts and experience to the table and let’s all get on with it.

Yeah reg.but they (the gov) have to look to themselves to cut the waste.this country cannot afford the gov..regular people have no money to put into the economy so it’s at a stand still

P.r.d.also deducted.come on someone can figure it

What is PRD Eilish?

Ted, I see no reason to bring farmers and self employed into this . Just because you are either does not mean you are “rich” (a word I have never seen described by lunatics who throw the word around like snuff at a wake). Many a farmer and many of the self employed cannot afford to pay bills or pay for College. In the majority of cases the self employed are ,in turn , providing employment to others. You are well balanced with a chip on both shoulders. Climb don, boy.

No they haven’t. You have been misinformed.

You stated on a previous thread Eilish that you paid 500 to 600 Euros in USC each month. Anyone paying that much in USC each month is earning about 100k per year gross. Do you think the well paid shouldn’t pay tax? Those earning 100k in Ireland loose approximately 40% of their gross amount in income tax, USC and PRSI. Not that bad compared to many countries.

What do schools asking for contributions have to do with the government? That is a matter for their school boards.

As for the PERSONAL financial risks of investing in property (in a bubble BTW) well why on earth should the state be covering you? I don’t agree that they should be covering investments made by large financial institutes (“bond holders”) so why would I agree about them paying you back for bad investments as well?

500-600 extra coming out of your pay since the crisis struck? You must we well off… but either way a lot of that money is being used to fund public services that we can no longer afford, and which we cannot support on the open funds market. Some of it is definitely going to bond-holders but not all for sure.

Eilish, I don’t doubt that you have legitimate reasons to be p’ed off at the government, but it seems like you have taken everything and lumped it into together in a big jumble.

How could the government rob your private investments and savings? That just did not, and can not, happen.

Dennis, they put a 0.6% levy on private pensions last year.

Pierce, that’s a stamp duty levy. Similar charges are placed on other investment types as well. Hardly the same as “stealing”.

Call a tax what you want, it’s a tax. The pension levy though is theft as its a tax on already taxed income. Yes you get to defer a bit, but not all of the income tax but you get the privilege of paying for our bloated public sector when you draw down. With the pension levy the government are just putting their hand in your pocket. Unless of course you are in the public sector.

You pay €500 a month for USC and PRD, as you’ve said. This is not the same as paying €500 to bond holders, as you said originally.

Eilish on a previous thread you said the 500 was USC only. Here’s the link to your original post: http://www.thejournal.ie/mortgage-arrears-rising-561663-Aug2012/#comment-556564

Now if the 500 is your total tax, PRSI, income tax and USC well thanks for correcting. Someone on 40k in Ireland pays approximately 25% of their gross income in tax. Still not bad by international standards.

@reg – I think you’ll find she corrected herself on that thread and basically said the same as she’s saying here

Jes Denis obviously the schools are asking parents for fees if they are not getting enough from gov.thats what gov.has to do with it . And if the banks can b bailed out why shouldn’t the citizens b too .

Eilish.. .Whatever about the merits of your argument you should use the “Reply” button (under the original post) to reply to replies. Creating a brand new post everytime you want to reply to someone is polluting the comments section.
So to reply to this you should hit the reply under your comment
“Jthm I paid my tax to support those things but now pay an extra 500 for the bond holders”

That will add your reply under this one :-)

No you don’t.

If you don’t like paying tax just say you don’t like paying tax. If you want to justify your not liking paying tax by saying you don’t agree with where your money goes, then please provide evidence to show that every month €500 of your money goes directly to bond holders. Unless you can show this objectively, I won’t believe you.

Everything must be paid for, including the services that you use and the services that you don’t use but have the option to use them. You’re taking for granted many things that you assume are free but are not in many EU countries, e.g. Public galleries and museums. The vast majority of tax does not leave Ireland, it remains here to pay for social services and the public sector. You may not agree with how the money is spent, but only a small percentage will ever be passed onto the evil, shadowy sharp-toothed blood-swilling bond holders.

You are simply repeating your argument, you are not advancing it. You’ve made a claim but you haven’t as yet back it up with objective information. Not good for an aspiring politico.

Reg . Another tax what else.pay related deduction.they like to call it pension related but it’s not .

So the PRD is the public sector pension levy, thanks for the clarification. Yes this was a pay cut by another name but at least you are still guaranted a defined benefit pension. Something most of us in the private sector can only dream of.