LABOUR PARTY Minister Pat Rabbitte accused TDs who are urging a boycott of the €100 household charge of deviating from the traditional radical demand for a property tax.
Singling out Socialist Party TDs Joe Higgins and Clare Daly, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources said there were plenty of other issues they could have chosen to protest about.
“People who think like Joe Higgins and Clare Daly have been campaigning across Europe since the French Revolution for a tax on property,” he said. “It seems to me that we’ve a lot of challenges because of the economic situation that this Government inherited, and a lot of rich pickings for people who want to protest only. But I don’t think that the household charge is the one that I would pick first.”
The Minister added: “The last time Joe Higgins and Clare Daly engaged in a similar protest was in respect of the bin charges in Dublin and it was successful in privatising the bin service right across the city.” Mr Rabbitte was speaking in Newbridge, Co Kildare after the launch of a Bord na Móna initiative to create 91 jobs.
Commenting later on Mr Rabbitte’s claims, Mr Higgins said the household charge was “another cog in the EU-IMF austerity programme to put burdens on ordinary people to salvage the European financial market system”.
A progressive tax should be imposed instead on the 5 per cent of the population who owned almost 50 per cent of the wealth in the State, and not on “ordinary householders on low and middle incomes”. Denying that the anti-bin charges campaign had brought about privatisation, Mr Higgins said: “Imposing charges is a set-up and a preparation of the ground for privatisation.”
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, who was attending the Bord na Móna function with Mr Rabbitte, said: “If we want to create employment, we have to broaden our tax base and raise taxes from property, and the theme of this budget was to broaden the tax base.”
He added: “Most countries in the world have a much broader-based tax code than we have. They include property taxes of some sort.”
His Cabinet colleague Mr Rabbitte said: “Remember that the intention is to evolve and develop the tax so that people who can pay most will pay most. This is a temporary flat charge because of the strictures on the exchequer to raise revenue. But the intention is that it will be a graduated tax, depending on the size of the home and so on.”
Asked if a referendum should be held on the euro zone fiscal compact, even if it were not considered legally necessary, Mr Rabbitte said: “I don’t think that anybody can seriously answer that question until we see the detail of what is being proposed. I think most of my colleagues would probably say – certainly I would say – that I’m not looking for a referendum, but I’m not going to dismiss a referendum sight-unseen.”
Mr Bruton said: “We need to see the detail of the text to see whether a referendum is necessary for it. We do obviously need to make changes to strengthen the euro.”
Asked if there was tension between Fine Gael and Labour over the level of salary paid to a senior adviser in his department, Mr Bruton said: “No, there is no tension whatsoever. There was a guideline set for the employment of advisers but in the case of people who are of exceptional talent and whose skill, experience or previous pay necessitated it, it was always envisaged that the guidelines could be breached and that is the case in this case.
“The adviser that I have is a person of immense skill, he’s very important in a key role which is the driving of employment policy in our country and that has Government support and was endorsed by a Government decision,” Mr Bruton said.