House charge fiasco - A mess of their own making

The chaos around the reintroduction of a household charge does not auger well for one of the most important projects faced by any Irish Government in decades.

If the same lack of professionalism, the same deep mismanagement, the kind of communications failure that cost Brian Cowen his political career, the disjointed approach — and, now, the bickering so often fathered by a looming failure — is applied to public sector reform then it is hard to be confident that that project, so vital to all our futures, might succeed.

Yesterday’s news that it is taking over a year for some social welfare appeals to be heard adds a worrying degree of authenticity to those fears.

Of course it may be that a completely different approach, a completely different level of professionalism, is being applied to reshaping our public service but it is not at all reassuring that when the Government had to reintroduce a household charge/property tax/rates that it did so so ineptly that it is within three days of the kind of resounding domestic defeat that will cause our international friends to wonder if their faith in us is justified. Unfortunately, this fiasco means we must ask ourselves that disarming question as well.

If the same laissez-faire attitude is taken to ensuring the May 31 referendum on the European fiscal compact is passed then we can reasonably expect that our record in rejecting European treaties on the first time of asking will be extended. Even though the Government, and specifically Environment Minister Phil Hogan, cannot deny they have made a pig’s ear of the process, the opposition to the levy has far more to do with political opportunism than principle or reality.

As we have acknowledged many times before, it is important that we expand our tax base and that a property tax be part of that package. Eventually, that tax will evolve to become more progressive and equitable than the flat, nominal charge so at issue today.

The truth is that anybody who wants to and can afford to, can easily pay the levy and suggestions that whole swathes of pensioners are technically isolated and therefore cannot pay it is the kind of bunkum Bertie Ahern fed his €30,000 audience in Abeokuta, Nigeria, on Monday. Far too many people are using the confusion, even if it is not really confusion at all, as an excuse to dodge the charge.

Undoubtedly, the Government has taken far too much for granted on this issue and allowed a collection of independents to win the propaganda battle thus far. However, the Government will take some comfort in the very small, in national terms at least, attendance at the anti-charge rally in Dublin last weekend.

This country is in more than enough difficulties already and anybody who can afford the levy would be foolish to alienate those who have supported us or to pretend that it is unjust for the sake of €100. The fact the levy has been endorsed by our parliament must be respected, too. There is, after all, a well-established and effective process for expressing displeasure with parliament’s decisions.

Those who genuinely cannot pay may be excused but ever-stricter criteria will be applied to assessments of whether a person can pay or not. It does seem likely, though, that Enda Kenny’s Government will have to eat a large portion of humble pie. They, if we can be allowed mix our metaphors, will have to take their medicine. Those who are dodging the legitimate tax need to grow up and accept that it is unavoidable.