FF corrupted the benchmarking process in the early 2000’s

FG have done nothing to repeal it.

You’ll hate me for saying it, but…

…because they’re on holiday.

I suspected as much, for the whole of August? Could they not contrive to have their holidays such that they could have a meeting? Do they get paid for August? What if there was an emergency?

Damocles, if there was an emergency, I don’t think a meeting of Councillors would make much difference! People’s Front of Judea comes to mind; “right, this calls for immediate discussion….”

What’s the point of a council that is no use in an emergency?

Creanmy hamstrings [ a lovely name ] does not know the meaning of “optional”. Can s/he opt out of paying the other taxes referred to ? This is a stupid dialogue.

Not from me. I haven’t registered because it’s not my debt. If I do get a reminder, I will simply lie and pretend I live in a ghost estate to get a waiver.

You just couldn’t make this nonsense up ! It’s so unbelievably childish it borders on insanity by hogan. You can imagine the conversations between him and the county managers.

Phil ” I’ll send you a letter pretending that there will be forthcoming cuts because they won’t pay. ”

Manager ” will there really be cuts oh great one ?”

Phil ” of course not you fool ”

Manager ” then why send the letters , oh great one ”

Phil ” ok let’s run through this one more time . I’ll send the letters !

Manager ” ok you send the letters ”

Phil ” you start moaning to the press a d throw out a press release about me cutting your money .

Manager ” ok great one , got it ! Great idea ! ”

Phil ” I know it is a great idea , isn’t it !

Manager ” sure is oh great one .

Phil ” just watch them all scurry with their last cent to the department then huh . ”

Manager ” yea we will , oh great one . Just one thing , will it work oh great one. Surely the little minions are not that stupid to believe this ridiculous , transparent piece of press . Not that I doubt you for a minute oh great one !

Phil ” just do it or you will be back sweeping the streets and just as poor as the minions that won’t pay .

Manager ” but will you really cut the budgets , oh great one ?

Phil ” do you think I’m mad or something . It’s part of my plan to make the minions pay ”

Manager ” oh ok got it , oh great one . Just one more thing , oh great one ?

Phil ” what now !

Manager ” when will we get our wives and kids back !

You just can’t make it up !! Up

The next government will replace it with a third band of income tax on the super-rich. Personally, I can’t see Hogan in office after the next election.

We didn’t share in their billion euro profits so why should we pay their debts.

EDNA and Co don’t particularly care if there in next term….he’s got what he’s wanted a nice fat pension….now he cant wait for it all to be over so he can start relaxing with his cronies….

Yep,most of the people who are waiting to “punish them” in the next election,will soon realise that most of them will not be standing in the next GE.Fianna Fail have set that standard.Get what you can in office,nice pension when the term is up,no accountability and two fingers to the electorate,and round and round we go!!!

Same reasons I refuse to pay and on top of that when we had the bad winters, not a sand gritter or snow plough came near us.

I meant ? Euro 200

Didn’t you have one yesterday or did you miss it? Maybe you did as I hear only a few hundred showed up!!

That was only in Dublin. We need nationwide strikes and shutdowns of services to send out a strong message. Paralyzing the country is the best way to achieve such.

All that march paralyzed yesterday was the traffic

You personal sleight against me makes absolutely no sense given that Ive always lived here.
May I suggest that you try living in one of the economies you have listed in your comment and come back in two years to laud its benefits to us all.

Wrong. Our deficit spiked to 32% of GDP to pay Anglo Irish Bank and their bondholders, along with the other banks. Had that not taken place, the Irish debt would be 40% less now.

These new charges were intended to cover that after bailing out banks. The money is already there except they want to spend it on bondholders.

Why do you think they’ve introduced the charge? Sure, it’s not directly related to the bankers, but there’s no funding leftover to cover the local authorities..why? Because we’ve given it to banks and bondholders.

I have not registered for the optional charge, and I will not be doing so.

Doesnotcompute is correct on every level. The Household Charge , horrible as it is , is Law. What gets me is why people who obeyed the law are going to be deprived of Local Services because of lawbreakers.

Well aren’t you the good “LAW” abiding citizen Rory…good on you fella…took that easy enough…how about when hogan wants to introduce a nice round sum of say €3000 to have the privilege of being in negative equity to a bailed out bank…..least BIG BULLY BOY HOGAN can claim it all back in “expenses”….Now off you go and make sure you don’t break any “laws”

@rory- once upon a time, owning a slave was protected by law. Not all laws are right! Sometimes you have break laws to draw attention to the fact they need fixing.
Many years from now our children will look back on this time with incredulity, an entire nation enslaved by the debts and losses of private corporations.
When do we say enough! This years budget will knock the breath out of us, resistance has to start somewhere. People aren’t refusing to pay because it’s a bit of craic, they are doing so on principle, to draw attention to something that’s inherently wrong.

Honestly your comment speaks volumes to your childish mentality…..now off you trot like a good law abiding boy, there’s a good lad….off you go……go on….

Ailis , if I’m not wrong , every country in Euope has a Household charge in some form or the other. Therefore , I cannot see the emotive relevance of Slaveowning.

SHHHHEEEEEEP………..We are NOT europe, WE are IRELAND…….and if everyone in Europe jumped off a bridge would……Oh wait…

Ryan oneill. I think you would jump. You own something that requires services. You pay for them Or, do you want your next door neighbour to pay them for you. You are the neighbour from hell , if you do.

Rory conway. Dont think. I am the nicest neighbor one could ever have, check out the comments of the week, your talking to a regular joe who wont pay and FYI either have my up market south county dublin suburbanite neighbors…go figure

Sorry Rory, I wasn’t necessarily equating slave ownership to HHC, I was drawing attention to the idea that not all laws are sound. I cannot help but feel there is a serious flaw in thinking that all laws must be unquestionably obeyed, so put up with it or else!
The HHC is something that has been rejected outright by half the homeowners in the country, much of the other half submitted payment only in the context of the fear that they would be taken to court and whatever else Phil Hogan threw at them. There comes a point when we have to have courage and say no. Find the money somewhere else, because all of ours has been used to prop up zombie banks. Our quality of life is on the line here. Diverting every last cent we have to fulfill a debt we should never have had any obligation to undertake has taken its toll on us and we cannot engage in this regressive tax! Are we supposed to wait several years just to vote them out next time around??
They work for us NOW. We did, unfortunately, elect them. We are the only ones who can make them accountable, and to do that, we need to protest. Not paying the HHC is a valid form of protest!! Find another way. Stop safeguarding the super rich who somehow managed to grow their wealth by 4% recently while everyone else struggled. There are other ways to raise money.

so we can break the laws we don’t agree with? BS. Why should I pay income tax? Why should I pay any tax? why should I pay for the social welfare, sick leave, social housing, children’s allowance, etc. of others?

If need be and on a level playing pitch I don’t mind paying more tax on my income, as that would be fair for everyone, but I will never pay a HHC or a property tax.A family home is not a persons wealth, it is a necessity that a thought full person will take on their back the burden of paying for with their disposable income so as to relieve the state of its responsibility to house its citizens, unlike those who are not asked to pay this tax because the state has to house them.
So why should someone who is saving the state money be targeted again with a third tax ?
First tax is on income !
Second tax is on all the vat paid on materials and labour in the home and then there is the stamp duty !
Third tax ; HHC or property tax ! Well not for me !
But don’t get me wrong, of corse bring in a good strong property tax on all investment property , be it houses or land, and I did say investment property, after all look at the amount of investment property’s that the state is paying the mortgage on, and look at the bubble that all these keep up with the neighbour investors HELPED to create. I have only scratched the surface here, this country is rotten to the core and there has to be reform from the top down, but it must start at the top.

Your Fine Gael mafia want my money? Come try and take it from me!

Tiernan, your pals in the board rooms and the executive suites are right there on the golf greens along with them (and they didn’t pay for their own membership or green fees or for lunch – those are considered “free expenses”).

Next “clever” remark?

Your sort make me sick. If the household charge was €10,000 would you have paid it – of course not.

For at lot of families €100 may as well be €10,000. These are normal people that have no money because of the Governments shocking decisions to date and they have the audacity to try and make us pay for it !

“creamy hamstrings” says this is an “optional ” tax. Where is it “optional” ? What world is s/he living in ?

Ive no idea where the idea that this tax is ‘optional’ comes from. If you are eligible, you pay, simple as that.

Of course its optional. You and people like you have paid. I however have opted not to pay the government this time. I give them €800 income tax per month, I’ve just paid €188 for THREE MONTHS car tax this week, aswell as indirect taxes etc. Phil can fcuk off if he thinks I’m going to give him some extra pocket money of my own accord.

Also, I live in an apartment and pay a management fee to cover my sewerage/water supply/bins/maintenance etc…so why in the name of Big Phil would i opt to pay an additional 100?

To the faceless namless commenter: Apologies if I make you sick however, the majority have paid so its not just me that makes you sick…its more then half the country.

People didn’t want Fine Gael…they were voting AGAINST Fianna Fail. They got in by default. People wanted change (what Enda Kenny promised), not more of the same (what he’s giving us).

If the Irish people had wanted Fine Gael on their own merits they’d have voted them in 10 years ago.

Eamonn the Fine Gael manifesto 2011 clearly says that an annual recurring property tax that was then proposed by Fine Fail and supported by Labour was unfair and would not be introduced by them. Many people might have voted for Fine Gael because of the policies they were proposing. The people commenting who think that somehow the government are within their rights to take equity out of our private property to pay for services must wonder how these services have been paid for all along. Why do they think we pay income tax, road tax, carbon tax, plastic bag tax etc. We are paying tax just commenting on this journal. As far as I was concerned I paid tax for my services. Also why is it ok to discriminate between users of the same services. If you own a property you pay towards the local library, if you rent or dwell in a council house you don’t. Why is that?

Im not arguing whether its right or wrong to impose a property tax – I dont like it anymore then anyone else. My point is that its been signed into law and as such, we are legally obliged to pay it. In none of my posts have I actually supported its imposition and as I have paid it, I wont be subject to the potential sanctions imposed. If Fine Gael have renaged in their pre election promises, they will suffer for it at the polls at the next general election.

Laws come and go.

FG got into power on lies and false promises and a so called law passed only by a whip system is not a democratic law

That depends on if they go the sensible way of fixing the problem or continue to go down the wrong road just like FF

So you are advocating segregation? Those who pay can live here and those who dont pay will have to live over there. LOL bed is for dreaming

Lucky you, when your home goes up in value you will have the privilege of paying a higher property tax, and when you have paid it, then in your words the value will go up again and you will have the privilege again of an even higher property tax, and round and round we go, as for the rest of us mortals, our home value will not go up, but who cares as it is our home and monetary value is not important

“we inherited this mess from FF” Get over it, over a year has passed excuses have to stop and leadership has to start………oh yes I forgot its Fine Gael, they don’t do leadership………just pats on the heads from the leaders of Europe… Give me a break FG will be gone as quick as snow at christmas, nothing left but mushy brown mess…..NEXT

Rory,

A brief summary of FG:

”Finance Minister Michael Noonan has been fiercely criticised for a 30% tax break for the highest earners included in the Finance Bill”

”The Special Assignee Relief Programme will cut tax bills by 30% on money earned between €75,000 and €500,000 for employees moved to Ireland to work for at least one year.”

See the similarities between FG and FF?

Tim Jackson. No.