Household charge a recipe for disaster

THE proposal to hit all households with a property charge of €100 per annum in default of which a penalty of €10 for every month the charge goes unpaid which amounts to 120% a year, however inevitable, is a recipe for disaster.

Even though €100 is less than €2 a week, the property tax could be a lightning rod for protests among those already squeezed by higher tax and the growing number of householders in mortgage arrears will still have to pay, as will pensioners. Some pensioners will easily afford €100 a year while others will not.

As no property taxes were imposed on households for decades the proposal is denounced as premature and socially divisive.

It will face boycotts and echoes of the British poll tax that prompted rioting 21 years ago.

The United Left Alliance predicts the tax could rise to €500 a year and plans to organise a national boycott. The tax is an interim measure, set at the lowest possible level it will apply for just two years, when a new water tax (another form of property tax) is introduced, predicated on systems being in place to make that possible with water meters in every household.

The Government should remember that grey power forced the previous government into an embarrassing climbdown over controversial plans to abolish automatic free healthcare for the over-70s.

Gerry Coughlan

Dublin 24