TDs will ‘stand to very end’ on tax

SOCIALIST TDs said they would “stand to the very end” against a new property charge and but would not say if they were willing to go to jail over their boycott.

The nine opposition TDs are urging a “historic mass campaign of the Irish people” by refusing to pay the €100 tax before the March 31 deadline.

Socialist TD Clare Daly said the charge was “the line in the sand” and an opportunity for people to say “enough is enough”.

She said if people accepted it they would see “a whole new tier of local taxation being opened up which would see ordinary people being absolutely persecuted”.

The group of left wing politicians said they’ll refuse to pay the charge, and the €2,500 penalty for failure to pay, even if that meant ending up in the courts.

Asked if he was willing to go to jail over the issue, like he did over bin charges in 2003, the Socialist leader Joe Higgins, said: “People going to jail will not win a campaign. What wins a campaign is the mass action of ordinary people.”

The group is hoping if enough people do not pay, the Government will have no choice but to abandon the measure: “If by the end of March, a million have not paid, that is how this tax will be broken,” said Mr Higgins. “As we’ve shown in previous campaigns, the people have the will to stand to the very end. Going to jail might seem a bit exotic. Nobody wants to go there.”

The campaign was branded a PR stunt by Environment Minister Phil Hogan. “The nine TDs are irresponsible and are engaging in a cynical, emotive PR stunt and it is wrong for opposition TDs as legislators to encourage people to break the law,” he said.

The group includes Mr Higgins and his socialist party colleague Ms Daly; People Before Profit members Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins; Independents Thomas Pringle, Mick Wallace, John Halligan and Ming Flanagan; and United Left Alliance’s Sean Healy.

Rising rent

LANDLORDS have been told by their representative organisation to put the burden of paying the new €100 household charge and the landlords’ €200 second home tax onto their tenants.

The Irish Property Owners Association has claimed landlords in the private rental sector cannot afford the charge on top of the second home tax.

It is advising landlords to charge renters 25 each month to cover the charges.

Stephen Faughnan, chairman of the IPOA said: “It is unfortunate that we are forced to pass on these charges, but with the huge burden of levies, taxation, compliance etc. foisted on landlords in recent times, we have no pot of gold to absorb any more.”