The real scandal has been the failure to introduce a fair property tax

THE real scandal about the household charge is not its imminent implementation but, rather, the fact that successive governments failed to introduce a property tax years ago.

Speaking soon after he was handed the poisoned chalice of the Finance Ministry in 2008, the late Brian Lenihan gave an interview in which he laid the blame for the property collapse at the feet of the people, infamously saying; “we all partied”.

His ill-judged remarks caused uproar and, in the ensuing cacophony of partisan political rhetoric, some of his more sensible statements were airbrushed from memory.