Time to fight for real equality

WIDESPREAD threats about non-payment of the household tax are of course just a symptom of a much deeper and far-reaching malaise in Irish society.

Most people probably believe that a fair property tax makes sense and is inevitable, all things being equal — but there’s the rub.

There is very little equal in Ireland today and even less equality.

Having been buoyed up by the euphoria of the general election results, people are already hugely disappointed and the feeling of inequality has been heightened by this government’s extraordinarily generous treatment of a layer of society that remains cocooned and buffered from the harsh realities of the recession and austerity measures.

The continuing payment of outrageous pensions, severance payments, lump sums and bonuses simply on the basis of “expectation”, to the people who presided over and destroyed our country without even the merest hint of accountability, is an outrage and a cancer that has engendered anger among people, as well as feelings of being utterly disenfranchised.

Equally, failure to reform and tackle waste in local and central government allied to the unsustainable benchmarked salaries, expenses and perks being paid to politicians and senior civil servants, using borrowed money, is an insult to us all.

The Government’s servile policy of doffing the cap to Europe despite its pre-election promises, and of continuing the daft policy of bailing out bondholders and German banks, while foisting permanently debilitating austerity on an already broken economy, is an affront to our national psyche.

This self-proclaimed reforming government is, unbelievably, committed to paying €1.25bn this month to unsecured Anglo bond holders and €17.25bn long-term interest payments on a debt we don’t even owe.

These payments are of course on top of the €50bn already thrown into the black hole of the Irish banks. This policy defies common sense, logic and basic economic theory and has been denounced for its stupidity by many, including renowned international economists.

The social costs equate to generations knowing nothing but the dole, increased suicide rates and countless thousands of our young people lost to forced emigration.

People are right to protest at this madness and in the absence of an election, the only immediate recourse to a meaningful protest is the refusal to pay the household charge.

Like pointless street marching, tsunamis of whinging and complaining letters to the papers are useless as weapons of protest — joining a targeted anti-household tax protest could be the springboard to give the government some backbone and force the emergence of real reform and true equality to our society.

John Leahy

Wilton Road

Cork