We’re being robbed blind by the very people we put in charge

YOU may remember that when the Minister for Finance announced in the Estimates that the grant for first-time house buyers was going to be abolished, a group of Fianna Fáil backbenchers were muttering about a revolt.

At a parliamentary party meeting they were reputed to have berated Charlie McCreevy and the Taoiseach, for that matter over taking away the €3,800 grant, before they marched into the Dáil and voted for the measure.

That's what good soldiers of destiny do exactly as they're told.

To put a bit of a gloss on their hypocrisy, they declared that damage limitation would happen in the Budget and the first-time buyers would be looked after. They have that kind of clout, you know.

Well, we know now exactly what kind of clout they have. Zilch!

The meagre relief the minister offered by way of increased mortgage interest relief for first-time buyers is wiped out by the one per cent increase in the VAT rate. It has been estimated that the move on VAT will add another €2,000 to the cost of a house, and those kind of estimates are rarely wrong.

Apart from staying away from the pint, it was a bleak Budget. Users of credit, Laser and ATM cards will also have to fork out an extra €42.5 million, thanks to Charlie McCreevy.

In what appeared to be an innovation, he slapped a new levy of €100 million on the banks and, like all such innovations, we know who will pay for that.

Tánaiste Mary Harney, a lady with an obviously wry sense of humour, declared in an RTÉ radio interview that it would not be passed on to the consumers. What naivete. The banks pass on charges in the same way that Fianna Fáil Deputies do what they're told automatically. When that happens, as it inevitably will, I look forward to Ms Harney telling the banks to dip into their own pockets for a change.

While most of us will be hit by the VAT increase, from house buyers to motorists and everybody in between, the multimillionaires of the bloodstock industry remain the untouchables.

For some inexplicable reason, the minister stubbornly refuses to levy any kind of tax on people who earn millions and who can afford private jets and homes all over the world. If he did tax them, the country could afford a better health service, or even put more gardaí on the streets.

But no. Charlie McCreevy and the Government prefer to take more and more money out of the pockets of those of us who are already paying taxes to live in a country which is becoming more expensive every year.

Even before Charlie McCreevy got up to speak in the Dáil, the bad news had already been delivered for anybody who has to fork out money every month for drugs. The cost has gone up by €5 to €70, for the simple reason that Minister for Health Mícheál Martin has to make savings of €20 million under the Drugs Payments Scheme for 2003.

To do so, he has increased the threshold (after which people can reclaim the cost of drugs) to €70 and this is the second time in the space of only six months that the threshold has been hiked up.

And you should be down on bended knees giving thanks for such a compassionate minister, because he said the threshold could have been increased to as much as €90.

If you happen to be a subscriber to a private health insurance scheme, then be prepared for another price increase, although any member of the VHI will be well used to this by now.

Mr Martin has decided the VHI and BUPA will have to pay another five per cent for private facilities in public hospitals, which will probably be passed on the subscribers. There's no probably about it; you can write it down that the charges will be passed out to the wing.

I don't see why private patients should be taking up badly needed beds in public hospitals but seeing as they do, it's only right and proper that the facilities should be paid for. But this is the third increase since the summer, resulting in hefty charges to the VHI and BUPA, which, no doubt, are heading in our direction.

Figures issued by the Department of Finance on Tuesday showed that tax returns to the end of November totalled €27.1bn, which was slightly ahead of the figure for the same time last year. Slightly, in this case, means about €1.1 billion.

If you take all the economic babble on board, it seems that Charlie got a €4bn late revenue boost, which should have put a bit of a smile on his face. This came from bits and pieces in income tax and company taxes, as well as finding the odd few million euro here and there.

Despite this bit of good luck, Charlie will start the New Year probably looking at an overall 2bn deficit. Don't ask me how a 4bn revenue boost transforms itself into a 2bn deficit over the Christmas season, but those who lecture us on matters economic are predicting that.

The 50 cent increase he put on cigarettes will raise something like €1.65bn, but he could have doubled that. In fact, smokers were anticipating that they would be hit by a €1 increase, and had the minister done so, not too many people would have stopped smoking.

By putting them up by a mere 50 cent, the minister will cause very few, if any, people to give up smoking. Considering the appalling cutbacks that were announced after the General Election, you would think that a Minister for Finance would grasp any opportunity for improving the health of the economy, if not the health of the population.

You would have to wonder whether Charlie McCreevy and Mícheál Martin actually talk to one another. The latter is trying to stamp out smoking while at the same time wanting to provide a better health service.

The Minister for Finance has the power to help his colleague out by taxing the bloodstock industry and seriously increasing the cost of cigarettes, but he chose not to do so.

The extra 30 cent he put on the alcopops was absolutely risible. That's another area where he had willing victims, in more senses than one, who would pay whatever exorbitant price is demanded of them.

Short of winning the lottery, or finding Shergar, most of us are destined to carry on paying the cost of living in the second most expensive country in Europe.