I know its mentioned in the Household Charge thread but sure I thought I'd start a new one anyway.
The government have been consistent in how much of a balls they've made of this. With Phil Hogan to the fore thats hardly surprising (though they seem to have locked Varadkar in a cupboard cos hes nowhere to be seen or heard these days).
I have no major objection to either the 'polluter pays' or the 'pay per usage' methods of levying. Having no water charges leaves things open to abuse and we aren't mindful or careful about how much of it we use. Its hard to feel bad about that though given the amount thats lost via leaks, etc.
But I have some suggestions for the government that might help them to introduce this with some level of acceptance from the general public;
- the cost of water treatment has been paid for up until now. The presumption is that we paid for it through our taxes. Thus, when introducing a water charge, how about reducing taxes somewhere else (VAT for example). Even just as a gesture so people don't feel they're paying twice for the same thing, which seems to be the case here.
- when quoting the cost of water treatment, pipe maintenance, etc, and working out a figure per-household, please also factor in the fact that business currently already pay huge amounts of money in water charges. Maybe they're factoring this in already but its not clear to me.
- don't penalise the punters for the water meters, or at the very least make it painless (by taking a euro a month over however many years).
- announce the allowance that households will get. I've heard 300 litres per day. This may not be finalised as none of this is due to come in until 2014, but this is the sort of shit people need to know about at the same time that costs are being discussed.
- fire that gobshite Phil Hogan. Hes rubbed so many people up the wrong way that he wouldn't be able to redeem himself by giving away free money.
The government are making noises about stabilising the tax base with these levies. And thats fair enough. But they need to take out existing, non-stable taxes (such as stamp duty) which people resent the shit out of paying, before adding these new ones. Because at the moment it seems all they do every day is sit down and see how they can squeeze more and more money out of people.
I didn't pay the household charge. I'm not sure if I'll pay for this. I may not have a choice for the water itself, but probably will for the meter.
anyway..
The government have been consistent in how much of a balls they've made of this. With Phil Hogan to the fore thats hardly surprising (though they seem to have locked Varadkar in a cupboard cos hes nowhere to be seen or heard these days).
I have no major objection to either the 'polluter pays' or the 'pay per usage' methods of levying. Having no water charges leaves things open to abuse and we aren't mindful or careful about how much of it we use. Its hard to feel bad about that though given the amount thats lost via leaks, etc.
But I have some suggestions for the government that might help them to introduce this with some level of acceptance from the general public;
- the cost of water treatment has been paid for up until now. The presumption is that we paid for it through our taxes. Thus, when introducing a water charge, how about reducing taxes somewhere else (VAT for example). Even just as a gesture so people don't feel they're paying twice for the same thing, which seems to be the case here.
- when quoting the cost of water treatment, pipe maintenance, etc, and working out a figure per-household, please also factor in the fact that business currently already pay huge amounts of money in water charges. Maybe they're factoring this in already but its not clear to me.
- don't penalise the punters for the water meters, or at the very least make it painless (by taking a euro a month over however many years).
- announce the allowance that households will get. I've heard 300 litres per day. This may not be finalised as none of this is due to come in until 2014, but this is the sort of shit people need to know about at the same time that costs are being discussed.
- fire that gobshite Phil Hogan. Hes rubbed so many people up the wrong way that he wouldn't be able to redeem himself by giving away free money.
The government are making noises about stabilising the tax base with these levies. And thats fair enough. But they need to take out existing, non-stable taxes (such as stamp duty) which people resent the shit out of paying, before adding these new ones. Because at the moment it seems all they do every day is sit down and see how they can squeeze more and more money out of people.
I didn't pay the household charge. I'm not sure if I'll pay for this. I may not have a choice for the water itself, but probably will for the meter.
anyway..