Wanted: Right rate for property tax

It wouldn’t be a surprise if Taoiseach Leo Varadkar spent some of his Christmas downtime thinking — and worrying — about 2019.

Quite apart from the impact of the exit from the European Union of Britain, one of its largest economies — and the trade and financial implications for Ireland — there is: the wobbly arrangement with Fianna Fáil; the possibility of a general election caused by the untimely deaths of Fine Gael TDs; and the certainty that housing, homelessness, cash-starved essential public services, incompetent government bureaucracies, and taxation will continue to be high on the list of issues worrying voters.