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Household charge to have ‘negative effect’

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PLANS to introduce a €100 household charge, described as “modest” by Government officials, will have a “negative effect” on local authorities, one Ennis councillor has claimed.

At last week’s Ennis Town Council annual budget meeting, Councillor Brian Meaney described the charge as “one of a long list of straws that have been put on this camel’s back”.
The budget meeting was told by town manager Ger Dollard that the €100 charge has “no impact” on the town’s budget. Councillor Meaney criticised the charge saying, “This is something that could get quite emotive in terms of public reaction. It needs to be made quite clear that introducing such charges will have a negative effect. Despite the rhetoric I have heard that this is going to benefit local authorities, I believe this will mean a net loss to the Government and local government funding.”
He criticised the Government, saying the “burden” of collection of the charge is “one of a whole raft of responsibilities put on local authorities by government and there are very little resources provided to continue services”.
Councillor Tommy Brennan added that the household charge is “not for local government, it’s going into the national coffers and we won’t see a penny of it”.
Councillor Frankie Neylon warned against boycotting the charge. “There are left-wing views out there talking about boycotting. But they want to put poor people in a situation where they will be made a lot poorer. They will be fined and they will be put in a worse situation.”
Details of the charge were outlined to the councillors in a circular issued from the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government.
The circular, from Colm Lavery of the Local Government Finance Section, detailed that the EU/IMF programme for financial support for Ireland commits the Government to the introduction of a property tax in 2012.
It outlined, “In light of the complex issues involved, a property tax, requiring a comprehensive property valuation system, would take time to introduce and accordingly, to meet the requirements in the EU/IMF programme, the Government has decided to introduce a household charge in 2012. The household charge is an interim measure and proposals for a full property tax will be considered by the Government in due course. The Exchequer contribution to the local government fund has been replaced by the income from the household charge for 2012.
“The household charge is being set at a modest amount of €100 for 2012 and provision will be made for the payment of the charge by instalments. The legislation to underpin the household charge will contain the precise details of the charge and will be published and brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas shortly.”

 

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