Should we take Cork’s very own Minister for Agriculture, the Right Honourable Mr. Simon Coveney’s refusal to be drawn on whether the soon to be imposed €100 Household Charge(Property Tax) will ultimately end up at a far harsher rate as sure enough evidence that it undoubtedly will? Minister Coveney did not even feel it necessary to deny any such speculation, and given Fine Gaels recent history of U-turns and bare faced lies to the Irish electorate surely we can take the Ministers refusal to be drawn as a taken for granted admission that it surely will! Economist John Fitzgerald of the Economic & Social Research Institute certainly see’s it that way. He envisages a property tax soon as high as €700 to €800 per household and while also foreseeing water taxes of up to €500 per household on top of that. Left wing councillor’s in Cork City Hall, Ted Tynan and Mick Barry must surely be commended for their determination to promote a campaign of mass non-payment of the upcoming Household Charge. Minister Coveney however deemed it necessary to remind ordinary people that they need to be ‘pragmatic’ and pay up, as he seems to feel he knows best as to what ordinary people need. He also felt compelled to remind ordinary citizens that it will be the Law to do so. So here we have a Fine Gael Minister recoursing to the Law in order to threaten struggling families to pay an unjust tax that will surely cripple many who are already overburdened. Take note, the Law will be rigorously used against working class families who dare to stand against a blatant injustice. Meanwhile, the Law seems not to apply to the scores of corrupt politicians, bankers, and greedy developers who have ruined a country, and condemned hundreds of thousands of workers to long term unemployment and emigration. Take a bow Mr. Coveney, a system of ‘fantasy economics’ that you recently alluded to are already in place, enshrined and protected to the last letter of the same Law with which you now threaten working people. Those ‘fantasy economics’ of capitalism ensure that a rich elite are always protected while leaving millions of working people on the scrapheap. Step forward people of Cork, Ireland and Europe. The time is surely now to organise and resist against our capitalist oppressors, and there suave, eloquent and deceptively soft spoken representatives such as Minister Coveney. As a start, dont pay the Household charge!
