Road toll the last straw for commuters taxed beyond the limit

THERE has been much press coverage dedicated to the subject of drivers avoiding the new Fermoy bypass toll road in favour of the old road.

It is being commented on in such a way that one could be forgiven for thinking these recalcitrant motorists were evading their social obligations in some way by refusing to capitulate to the latest highway robbery.

Both the Irish Examiner and Evening Echo have irritatingly chosen to refer to such motorists as ‘toll dodgers’.

As one who commutes daily to Cork via Mitchelstown and Fermoy I feel it would be more in your line to refer to the motorists who actually conform to this blatant and brazen double charge rip-off as ‘toll-suckers’.

Why should anyone fork out twice (toll and road tax) for the right to use a road that was all of 25 years in the making while we were gridlocked in Fermoy and Mitchelstown.

Let’s look at this ill-conceived toll idea in the context of the larger economic picture.

Firstly, I need to remind the Government responsible for this fiasco that single persons earning in excess of just €36,000 pay income tax at a rate of 42%. They also pay PRSI at a rate of 4%. And they pay levies at a rate of 2%, bringing the total tax take on much of their income to 48%. If they work hard on overtime or earn a bonus, guess what? All taxable at 48%.

Secondly, anyone who purchased a principal private residence in recent years would have paid an exorbitant price for the property and an exorbitant amount of stamp duty in the process.

Many have been stretched to the limit and beyond to repay such astronomical sums. Many more would have had to borrow the stamp duty as well, so the true cost of this tax would run to multiples of the original outrageous sum.

All of this must be funded from ‘after-tax’ income. These same people have now suffered no less than five interest rate hikes in the last 12 months.

If they have a family they have also faced major increases in their VHI bills, home heating oil and motor fuel, all of which must be funded from after-tax income — not to mention general inflation rates significantly above EU levels for years now.

If these same people bought new cars recently, they would have paid completely unjustifiable levels of vehicle registration tax. They then had to pay expensive road tax, although God knows why.

They had to pay car insurance, which included a Government levy.

The petrol has VAT added, of course, and when the car is serviced, what’s that at the end of the bill? Oh yeah, yet more VAT for the Government.

And when the tyres or any other part of the car need changing, VAT applies as well. Parking discs need to be purchased to avoid being clamped and forking out another outrageous sum to the authorities.

In the meantime, the value of the car is depreciating at a rate of knots, a phenomenon that cannot be written off against tax by the PAYE worker.

It’s frightening to think that these enormous amounts of indirect taxes going to the Government for running a car are out of after-tax income.

In other words, all of this is out of 58% of the income left over after the Government has taken its direct slice. Truly breathtaking.

So just as you think every last avenue for screwing the PAYE worker has been utterly exhausted, what does the Government do?

It now reasons that if PAYE workers stay quiet while being relieved of the lion’s share of everything they earn, then surely it can safely get away with adding insult to much injury by charging them to use the roads also out of after-tax income (as if there was any left).

This public/private partnership must have sore sides from laughing at what they are allowed to put over on the Irish public, and in particular on the People’s Republic of Cork.

But €1.60 sounds reasonable, I hear you say. Think again. If you need to use that road twice a day, six days a week, you will need to earn €2,000 gross per annum to fund it. In other words, if you’re happy to use it daily you’ve just given yourself a €2,000 pay cut for the year with no reduction in your income tax.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, they then have the gall unashamedly (and hopefully illegally) to usurp the Watergrasshill bypass, putting the lives of the residents and their children in mortal danger.

How dare they even think about charging for a new road in these circumstances. It’s completely unacceptable. Lobby the politicians and give the Government its long overdue reality check.

Kevin Fitzsimons

Knockrour

Kilbehenny

Mitchelstown

Co Cork