We all hate paying taxes, but fair tax is the key to a fair society

BEING a taxpayer is no fun, we all know that.

But to judge from the storm that broke in the media last week, one could be forgiven for thinking that some terrible injustice was perpetrated on Ireland’s taxpayer pensioners at the turn of the year.

The media loved it, of course. Another nice juicy political scandal to get 2012 off to a good start. Headlines like “crackdown on old age pensioners” helped to ramp it up. Phone-ins were jammed by angry pensioners, demanding to know what would be done about this latest attack on them.