Ireland Faces Popular Revolt Over New Property Tax

Ireland Faces Popular Revolt Over New Property Tax


By SHAWN POGATCHNIK Associated Press
DUBLIN March 31, 2012 (AP)

Debt-mired Ireland is facing a revolt over its new property tax.

The government said less than half of the country's 1.6 million households paid the charge by Saturday's deadline to avoid penalties. And about 5,000 marched in protest against the annual conference of Prime Minister Enda Kenny's Fine Gael party.

Emotions ran raw as police backed by officers on horseback stopped demonstrators from entering the Dublin Convention Centre. Many protesters booed and heckled passers-by who were wearing Fine Gael conference passes, some screaming vulgar insults in their faces.

Protesters jostled with police as they tried to block the way of Fine Gael activists using a back entrance. One man mistakenly identified as the government minister responsible for collecting the tax had to be rescued by police from an angry scrum.

Kenny said his government had no choice, but to impose the new charge as part of the nation's efforts to emerge from an international bailout. Ireland already has endured five emergency budgets in four years and expects to face at least four more years of austerity.


"The household charge is the law of the land," said Kenny, who noted that people were paying the tax over the Internet at a rate of 5,000 an hour Saturday.

Council offices also were ordered to remain open Saturday to help taxpayers meet the deadline. But the last-minute push wasn't nearly enough as the agency handling tax collection said just 735,000 households had paid by Saturday night.

The charge this year is a flat-fee €100 ($130) per dwelling, but is expected to rise dramatically next year once Ireland starts to vary the charge based on a property's estimated value. Anti-tax campaigners have urged the public to ignore the tax demand, arguing that the government doesn't have the power to collect it.

Ireland imposed the charge as part of its ongoing negotiations with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, which in 2010 provided Ireland a €67.5 billion ($90 billion) credit line to pay its bills through 2013.

The donors require Ireland as part of the deal to reduce its annual deficits by slashing spending and raising taxes, and specified Ireland's lack of property-based tax as an obvious target.

In 2011, Ireland posted a deficit of 10 percent of gross domestic product, hopes to lower that to 8.6 percent this year and reach the bailout accord goal of 3 percent by 2016.

Saturday's protesters traveled from every corner of the Republic of Ireland. Many carried placards bearing the slogans "No way, we won't pay!" and "Reject fear, austerity stops here!" One of the biggest banners suggested, "Tax the cheats that got us into this mess."

One man's handmade poster depicted Kenny and other politicians with the bodies of serpents and appealed to Ireland's patron saint: "Come back St. Patrick, it's still full of snakes."

http://abcnews.go.com/International...lar-revolt-property-tax-16045514#.T3htKvXZWSp


Sounds like the Irish don't want to eat their EU/ECB/IMF peas. How will the gov't force compliance upon the people?


_

 

I guess more spending cuts are coming.

 

I figure they expect the property tax to grow like the VAT...start small and become punitive over a short time.

 

Popular revolt? Meh, we are too well behaved for that malarkey.

They won't get the household charge because it is new and their is no way for the government to accurately track the number of households.

There will be cuts to local budgets. Coco's will cry, parks will suffer and the property tax will be fully instated next year.

 

Any shrinking of the welfare state would be helpful.

_

 

Irish taxes are unbalanced, no property taxes low corporation taxes and high consumption and income taxes. The collapse of the property market removed one of the governments main sources of financing, stamp duty, which for some years in the boom accounted for as much as 20% of government revenue a property ta is not a bad idea in the long run and will give greater independance and autonomy to local governments who are now almost entirely reliant on grants from central government.

We got rid of property taxes in a pre-election give away by FF, the feckers who sunk the country, it is fitting they are reinstated by FG

 

How is cutting pensions and teachers salaries helpful? Defaulting on our debts would be far more helpful step.

 

*shrugs* I just have to wonder if staying with the EU is a wise move for Ireland. Wouldn't you be better off with your own currency?

 

Ireland never had its own currency. We were always either in a on a hard peg with the UK or linked to the deuschmark.

The EU is important for Ireland in a number of ways.

Much of our FDI stems not from the Corporate tax rate (though that is helpful) but because of the fact that we are the only English speaking country in the eurozone leaving the EU would be very bad for FDI as it would place us outside the common market and leaving the euro zone would be bad for us because currency fluctuations are a major concern for foreign multinationals wishing to export into Europe.

We are still net beneficiaries of the EU both through structural funds, which have brought great infrastructural development and throught the CAP. Farmers remain an important constituency in much of rural Ireland which gives them a disproportionate say in matters of government policy.

Even if we left now our debts are all in euro and would have to be paid in euro by following governments.

 

Fair enough, but the bolded part interests me. You're saying farmers get a disproportionate say. Isn't that a bad thing?

 

You left out unemployment and welfare for child rearing. Why?

_

 

Is it a bad thing that RI gets the same number of senators as California?

Rural Ireland (where I live BTW) whines about modernization and how evil dublin elites are trying to destroy Ireland's traditional way of life. And rural TD's ie Michael Lowry, the Healy-Raes, Ming Flanagan etc play to that. Major parties play to that. I don't like it, but it is.

 

Unemployment is high because we have just seen a major economic crash how does lowering unemplyment benefit help? We had 4% unemployment before the crash do you think it is 14% now because people have got lazy?

Child benefit should definitely be means tested. That is expected in the next budget. And it is a tiny fraction of expenditure.

 

Well, that is true that our Senate overvalues small states. That's a legacy of our founding though.

Honestly, I think we would better off without the Senate. It does detract from the concept of "one man = one vote."

 

If the promises are more than the government has, cuts become necessary BUT, they should not be targeted but should be across the board for all government workers.

 

Oh no! I think the Senate is a great idea. Bicameral legislatures add to debate and can provide better representation on regional or sectoral issues.

I wish our Seanad had more teeth. But perhaps it is more important in a parliamentary system to have two houses to reduce the dominance of the government while in a presidential system you might get away with one house with the strict separation of power.

 

Cuts should most definitely be targeted. Why cut 10% off efficient and non efficient spending alike?

Why cut the salaries of Gardai and the Army Privates?

 

There are advantages to bicameral systems, but I think unicameral ones are more representative of the general populace.

 

Because with government there is no such a thing as 'efficient'. In addition you end up with protected political groups being spared while others get raped.

 

They should stop giving welfare to immigrants and refugees and will probably make the same ammount of money than with this tax.
But instead of protecting irish people's money, they take it away.

 

A refugee gets 12.50 in allowances every week they are hardly lying in the lap of the land.

Immigrants have to work for eligibility for welfare the same as everyone else.

 

Cutting across the board makes no sense.

Why cut child welfare by 10% for everyone when the same savings can be made by means testing the benefit?

Why cut front line health services pay when the same saving can be made by hollowing the managerial levels of the HSE?

 

Because we then leave the decision what to cut or who to cut to pandering politicians who will look out for their friends and political base and screw the rest.

 

Someone has to do it. FG Labour know that they cannot come out of this popular I think the household charge shows that they cannot do this in a politically popular way. They are getting on with it and se need to as well.

 

The only way to insure the decision is not partisan or political is to cut everything everywhere...and an advantage is that the cuts are less for everyone...Is it better to gig 5% from all or 15% from a select group cut for political reasons...