Charge is just another tax increase

With reference to the debate on the household charge, we are told by the powers that be the charge is for “fire and emergency services, maintenance and cleaning of streets, planning and development, etc.”

Yet, in the past while, one cannot get use of the fire brigade without receiving an invoice for their services; one cannot get planning permission, or start building, without the payment of substantial fees; and, if one is unfortunate to live in a new development, one cannot get one’s local council to take over the public areas of the development.

Your letter writer, Mr Noel Ó Coileain, (Mar 20) describes how income tax was increased to replace rates after their abolition in 1977. He failed to point out that, in the Rainbow Coalition of the 1990s, Minister Brendan Howlin diverted all annual motor tax revenue to the local authorities, for the provision of the same services the Government now claim we need to pay a household charge.