YOU wouldn’t have thought it from following the Household Charge saga in the media.
But the majority of people liable for the tax in Cork have — grudgingly I’m sure — already coughed up the 100 euro fee.
The law-abiding majority, I think we’re called.
The ones who haven’t paid will soon start to receive reminders in the post, informing them that they have already incurred penalties for failing to meet the March deadline.
Although a minority, these refuseniks still comprise a sizeable army —
88,000 homeowners across Cork city and county and 700,000 nationwide.
A tiny amount of these will be blissfully unaware of the Household
Charge — farmers who live halfway up secluded mountains, or hippies who
haven’t experienced television, radio or newspapers since discovering the joy of ganja in 1982.
A similarly small amount will be politicians and other posturing community types, who appear to believe their own personal principles
count for more than a law enacted by the democratically elected
government of the day.
(Incidentally, three TDs claimed expenses for travelling to anti-household charge protests, it emerged this week, and don’t see anything wrong with getting the public to pay for their vanity trips. Power to the people indeed; well, their people).
Then we come to the large majority of the property tax non- payers:
Homeowners who are hoping the tax will simply go away — perhaps the
government will fall, or the euro will go kaput (rather aptly, a German
word) or maybe the local council has mislaid their address.
These people have sought refuge in large numbers thus far — and it’s hard to blame them, since it was a ruse that crossed my mind until I decided it just wasn’t worth incurring the extra penalties.
Altogether, these three groups make up 700,000 homeowners nationwide and pose a formidable obstacle to Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s hopes of forcing the tax through in its first year.
But he will know that the final group here are key. As pressure is exerted on these tax dodgers in the coming weeks and months, Minister Hogan will be hoping that push will come to shove, they will realise the game is up, and register and pay the tax plus fine.
Thus far, the pressure has been off the refuseniks. Only a modest 40,000
households have signed up to the charge since the deadline passed three
months ago.
My guess is that Big Phil needs to have reduced this 700,000 non-paying
figure to at least 200,000 before his initiative can be deemed anything
like a success, and he can roll on to year two and look to increase the fee.
Because let me tell you this, as someone who was among the begrudgers
who paid the tax before March 31.
If Minister Hogan ratchets up the property tax for 2013 and expects
law-abiding citizens like me to pay it, while there are tens of thousands of homeowners in Cork alone who are getting away with their evasion — many with far more spare cash than I — then he can go whistle for it.
I can just about stomach paying a modest new tax that our government
promised the EU we would introduce when they hauled our sorry asses out of the fire and bailed us out.
But, and Mr Hogan I hope you’re listening, I won’t be taken for a bloody
mug.
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WHEN she was a starry-eyed teenager, Katie Holmes had a poster of Tom Cruise on her bedroom wall.
Yet we were led to believe this week that her hubby’s raunchy marketing pose for his new film Rock Of Ages upset her enough to leave him.
Similarly, Holmes knew all about Cruise’s penchant for Scientology before she walked up the aisle with him.
Yet his religion was also cited as grounds for her to dump him.
As most mums would say: “You knew what you were marrying.” Those wise mums might also say that nobody knows what goes on inside a marriage — even a Hollywood one.
But what really caught my eye in this whole sorry affair was the fact that Holmes filed for divorce — no trial separation here — totally out of the blue.
Cruise, said to be “devastated and heartbroken”, had much to ponder as he spent his 50th birthday this week amidst the wreckage of his third marriage.
No, the mums are right. Nobody knows what goes on inside a marriage. But if I had to choose a side with the former Hollywood golden couple, all my sympathy would be with Tom Cruise.
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SOMETIMES of late, I’ve had the distinct impression that Enda Kenny has
taken on the vows of a Trappist monk.
What was in that EU deal last week, Taoiseach?
No comment.
Are you going to raise PRSI in the budget, Enda, as Joan Burton
suggested this week?
No comment.
Ah, here’s one you must have an opinion on: Are you in favour of gay
marriages?
No comment.
Come on, Taoiseach, at least you could have come up with that old Fr Ted chestnut with the last query.
“Ah, that would be an ecumenical matter.”