Heads in the clouds

I would like to point out to the economic gurus like Jim Power who support the household charge that Cork County Council has a range of charges for the various services they provide; for example, there is a charge for joining a library or calling out the fire brigade.

So, Jim, we are paying for the services as we use them. Also local government should be well funded as they have added income from commercial rates, car tax, and dog licences. Two questions economic experts like Jim should ask are: 1. Is local government, like Fás and RTÉ, a cesspool of waste, cronyism and cute-hoor gombeenism? 2. Is the household charge a junketeer’s slush-fund?

We pay for rubbish collection, the residents association pay for grass cutting, we pay for doctor visits and medicines, health insurance to pay for hospital stays, school books, and voluntary contributions to local school primary and secondary schools. I am sick of these economic gurus and their head-in-the-clouds thinking, and their unchallenged media rants, divorced from the reality of the real world.