Property tax won’t make any dent in our debt

Two years ago the current Dáil/Government were elected. Their mandate was to sort out the country’s problems. This did not include imposing a property tax.

They have no mandate from the people to introduce this tax and the way they propose to collect it by threatening people is nothing short of extortion. ‘Pay up or else you are breaking the law. You are a tax dodger. You will not get a tax clearance cert. You will get a bad credit rating’. This kind of stuff can be expected from Fianna Gael but the Labour party should be ashamed of themselves.

Consider what it will cost to collect this tax, coupled with all the division and upheaval it will cause, just to collect approx half a billion a year — all this for something that will make no dint on the financial problems facing this country.

The attitude of ‘let’s have a whip ‘round, has got to stop, this will not solve the country’s problem, it will only create more.

This attitude is the easy way out. We have a small population of circa 4.5 million people and still the Government cannot create employment.

Trying to get outside investors in here to create jobs is the easy option all the time.

As long as the Government takes the easy option and depends on outsiders, we will never have control of our own country.

Where is the road tax money going? Just look at the state of the roads.

These people cannot be trusted, so it is now our turn to vote again. We can vote with our feet this time, by not paying this punitive tax.

Let’s stand together for once and maybe they will stop taking the easy way out and stop taking advantage of us when they get elected. Remember, your vote counts, so use it, don’t pay.

Ciarán Dunne

Ballintemple

Cork