A chara, - In last Saturday's Irish Times, Drapier comments that "Labour has succeeded in convincing the others of the need to make a major announcement early in the New Year on a crucial issue which has a resonance in the Dublin West by election.
Drapier appears to be implying that Democratic Left, as a Government partner, needs to be convinced to get rid of local authority service charges.
Has Drapier forgotten the negotiations that led to the formation of this Government? Has he forgotten that it was Democratic Left which made it a precondition of its participation that there be significant reforms in relation to what the party has always identified as unfair double taxation? He also appears to forget that again in March 1995 it was Democratic Left which pursued its Government partners to firm up on such reforms.
Drapier's predictions that Labour would take an initiative on the service charges would constitute a turn up for the books. The only initiative ever taken by Labour on the service charges was to introduce them in the first place, during a tenure in the Department of the Environment by one of their ministers in the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition of the early 1980s.
If it is the case that Fine Gael and Labour have finally been persuaded by Democratic Left's incessant campaigning for the abolition of service charges, then it's good news for the hard pressed PAYE taxpayers of this country. Let's hope Drapier has got the issue right, whatever about who's credited with the initiative. - Le meas,
Meadowbrook Court,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.