A flate rate water charge, a tax on life.

In the coming year the reigning Fianna Gael/ Labour government intends to institute a, temporary, flat rate on a new water and a property tax.  In addition they will levy a new interpretation of the television license fee.  Of these charges I will only be paying the revamped television license fee, which is frankly a badly needed re-engineering of a failing system. A flat rate property and water rate are nothing short of theft. They will not in any way reflect the true value of the property owned, nor the actual quantity of water used by a household. This means that the inequality in Ireland between the rich and the merely well-off, and the inequality between the well-off and the poor will once more be ignored by those without a foot in the reality of living day-to-day in this country.

I understand that non-payment may result in days in court, may result in fines or even imprisonment. But this is a line in the sand which the government themselves drew during the election earlier this year. And yet this is a line that they have now danced gleefully over. So I will if threatened with time in court avail myself of the Irish legal system and fight for my right to a clean, unthreatened water supply.

It’s time now to say Enough. The national anthem of this nation is “A Soldiers Song.” It supposedly reflects the fighting spirit of the Irish citizen when threatened by any unjust regime. Well I for one would rather fight my government, tooth and nail, facing prison and the horror for a transsexual woman, suffering a severe debilitating illness, imprisoned in a system that to my knowledge makes no allowance for the nature of who and what I am, than pay another tax on life.

And make no mistake a tax on water is a tax on life itself.  No water, no life.  Besides we in Ireland already pay for our water, that was the reason given for the creation of the Value Added Tax, way back in the mists of Irish political time.

My call is to the Irish citizen. We’ve taken every lump on the chin for the last 2+ years. When the world was shocked that we didn’t riot, we waited and made our voices heard in the Election earlier this year.  We have accepted rafts of new taxes, hikes on old ones. Those of us who are rightly and justly on disability have accepted cuts to the little money we receive because the state see’s no difference between Disability Allowance and Jobseekers allowance. We have all accepted our lumps in the name of national unity in the face of national obliteration. But this is one step we must as a nation say a loud and authoritative “No” to.

So I say, let’s not riot in the streets, thus endangering the safety or livelihoods of our fellow citizens. No let us all simply not pay, until a properly measured charging system is in place for both.

And to those who will say “But sure you’re on social welfare, you’ll be cushioned from this.”  Does anyone actually believe a word that comes from any governmental mouth any longer?  After they have reneged on almost every election promise?  I don’t, I fully expect them to scourge those living beneath the bread-line when they get the opportunity, just like the last government did.  Simply because we are the ones who have no means to fight back.