Stamp out An Post incompetence

Ireland was the island of saints and scholars and now it is a nation ridden with criminals.

Many people have not paid the household charge. So what now? Before Minister Phil Hogan sends out the henchmen, consider that Minister Joan Burton was under the illusion that you could pay it in your local post office. ! An Post delivered junk mail urging households to comply but the mail arrived too late for many.

An Post supplied the registration forms. An Post sold you the postal order. But nobody in the Government asked An Post to collect the money.! Nobody in Government asked An Post to use their TV licence database to send forms to people’s homes. The incompetence. If the household charge is to be designated for local services, and local authorities are ‘skint’, then what money is being used to pay the local authority staff who will work overtime on Saturday, March 31? Would it be household charge revenues, by chance? What is the cost involved there?

What is the cost of the pamphlet drop that didn’t reach everybody? Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has indicated that there is no Plan B if people don’t pay, although Minster Hogan is chomping at the bit, ready to send his henchmen around to every household to extract payment.

Instead of standing idly by, lamenting the fact that An Post was not utilised effectively, the Labour Party need to assert themselves as partners in Government and salvage the situation.

They should devise a Plan B and insist that it be implemented. Fine Gael have been too busy congratulating themselves at their Árd Fheis to see an obvious solution.

The Government should extend the deadline and organise for An Post to accept payment without penalties. Instead of following the Green Party and adopting the role of the spectator, the Labour Party should step up and drive forward this practical, conciliatory solution or else face the same fate as that other coalition party.

Killian Brennan

Malahide Road

Dublin 17