Worth blogging.
Greens to introduce water rates.
So some guy is gonna come into your house and install a water meter. Meanwhile, revenue raised by water charges will not go into any of the following:
- Fixing Victorian water pipes
- Ensuring people have decent water pressure
- Upgrading the system so a bit of cold weather doesn’t leave people without running water for weeks on end
- Improving reservoirs and stopping wasteage
- Anything at all to do with the water supply system
Instead this is another stealth tax which FF have let the Greens to push through. Gormley’s stupid, corrupt fucks will try and justify it on the basis of some ludicrous environmental benefit. They may even believe it themselves. Idiots. FF must be pissing themselves as they allow the Greens to do their dirty work, allowing them think they’re achieving their political goals.
The truth is the money raised by this will be another finger in the dyke that is our busted economy. Our bankers, property developers, speculators, politicians and business ‘elite’ will be bailed out with this money while it takes the rest of us nearly a minute to fill the fucking kettle because the trickle that comes out of the kitchen tap is so pathetic.
I’m not fucking paying.
I’m not paying either. No one should. Nor should anyone open their door to the engineers. And if it’s a roadside meter, we’ll break it. Civil disobedience. They can’t jail us all.
Like the French with clampers and superglue.
Exactly. People don’t know how to rail against Nama because it’s kept couched in confusing language and there’s no visible target. This is our own doorsteps.
They shall not pass (my threshold).
This story is full of bare faced facts and glaring accuracies.
Such as?
It’s all factual and accurate.
I need to learn to read
You’re gunna get ‘em and you’re gunna pay whatever tax THEY impose. We went through this shit some years back and we almost voted the pricks out of office who did it but party loyalty prevailed. We’ve been paying ever since. Stop and think, once the water’s turned off the toilet won’t work and you’ll have to shit in the garbage can (dust bin)or out in the yard and there’ll be no water to wash your hands after the wipe. How will cope with that problem? Unless, of coarse, you won’t wipe. If you decide to go to Ron’s to take a dump he will charge a fee per flush to cover his tax. Ya can’t win.
Next up, an air tax. Will heavy breathers pay more than shallow breathers? You can be stubborn and refuse to breath, the dead will be exempt from that tax.
Pay per breath
Could one get a well drilled in one’s back garden? And a rainwater collection tank like the ones they have in Oz for toilet flushing, etc? I really would pay to have a well drilled-just so those hungry fuckers wouldn’t get my tax money. I’m not paying any further tax to these people when they are misappropriating billions of taxpayer money and funneling it into privately owned businesses that they have a vested interest in. Not the parking tax either. None of it.
Do what all the farmers round here do, Twenty. Drill into your neighbour’s water main.
It’s part of the move towards PAYL (Pay as you live) as opposed to PAYE. You might not always earn but you have to live. So it’s more lucrative way to tax.
Income tax was supposed to pay for roads, hospitals, education and municipal services. So rather than have the Government pay for it, they tender the service to private contractors and they charge it separately, outside of income tax and for a profit. But our income tax doesn’t change to reflect that.
It’s capitalism. Big corporations eye up our taxes and turn them into revenue. And lots of politicians and civil servants make huge money on perks and bribes in order to open up the municipal services to competition. A good example would be waste collection. Most of those companies are inherently dodgy with IRA connections and a history of bribing FF. And they’re the big companies who look all legit and corporate-like.
Oh, who’s at the door at this hour….
TV licence or religious nuts
I would have no problem paying my tax and water charges etc. It’s paying those same taxes and water charges to this pack of useless cunts I have a problem with. What has Ahren, McCreevy, Cowen done with my tax dollars over the last 15 years? They blew every fucking single penny. They’ll say they built roads, increased spending on hospitals etc, etc but we know they blew every fucking penny.
I’m not paying water charges to these corrupt cunts. They can fuck off, I’m not in.
HM has it right, he’s probably been abducted by some ‘inspectors’.
There’s a huge tank here, from the pre-mains days. And lots of rain. I bet if thousands of people collected rainwater a ‘water collection tax’ would be imposed on us.
We ran the electricity of the gas and the gas off the electricity….
This guy is right up your street HM.
Note the dates of the articles. If “The Republican News” wasn’t too pushed about one of their own in the late 90′s he must be some beauty. 10 years later the tribune calls Liam Carroll a Billionaire”. 1 year later he’s AWOL
http://republican-news.org/archive/1999/June24/22ult.html
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2009/jul/12/the-hunger-of-tom-mcfeely/
Once upon a time, in the long ago 80s, in flatland, there was gas cooking and heating and a meter to put a shilling (sic) in, and a litle box below to pull out to get the shilling out to put back in the meter when it ran short. And that became a little tiresome so this dial thingy was pulled out and hey presto a shilling lasted ever such a long time.
And lo it dawned one day many months later that no one had any interest in the meter. And then when the new pipes were being laid for the new gas and the gas seemed to be cut off someone approached the digging guys and said, ‘Hey, our gas is off’, or words to that effect, and the digging guys said, ‘Oh, right… didn’t know anyone was connected down here… we’ll dig up from the far end and get you back on.’
And so it happened that the gas was back in the cooker in 24hrs. And a little padlock was put on the little box under the meter and the key to the little padlock was ‘lost’.
But still no-one came. And the all years passed by. And we moved on. And who knows what happened in the end?
Itchy, That McFeeley fella sounds like a right little knacker. His massive inferiority complex has led him to become the very thing he claims to despise. A real sign of a stupid man and a man who threatens violence when reason escapes him.
Yeap. I love the bit from the An Phoblacht article where the woman describes him as arough merchant and then 10 years later he’s surrounded by religious iconography and still a bitter, twisted bollix.
Off-topic. I saw this guy, Villagers..not sure if it’s just him and/or a band.. on Jools Holland the other night, was talking to a friend about him today and my friend told me he’s from my home town. small world. I hope he goes far. I hope I know his sister. If he has a sister. Anyhow. I’ll buy his stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Jr1WbBmQU
A wonderous tale, Conan.
Hey Conan, we had the same thing in the 80s. A meter no one knew anything about. Unemployed and living in a crappy flat in Dublin 4. We were poor as fuck but warm as toast.
When they changed to natural gas we had to tell them though: “oh yea, em, is that a gas meter thingy there?. Wow, really. Amazing man. ‘Spose you better cut it off.”
Sad fucking day.
I wonder if the rotting corpse of the tv licence man hanging from a tree next to my door might put them off. In fairness I dont wanna go all nutsy and get a new ‘meter man’ corpse. Think of it as recycling
There isn’t a tax that those Green cunts don’t like is there! People just won’t stand for this, the water pipes, connectors, etc., have ALREADY been paid for by the people of Ireland, it’s our water and we should not have to bloody pay for it! If pipes need to be repaired, then they should give jobs to thousands of construction workers who’ve been laid off to re-do the mains, etc…. in the long-term it will save money and water resources. Water meters = another scam tax
tell you what….We’ll send the greens from the north down actually the greens and the crazy socialist reds fo the socialist workers party who worked together to oppose water charges up here….they’ll spray paint it everywhere…
bbc world service has just said that amsterdam airport has just opened and then followed with an update that a new volcanic eruption has just occured.
the future is airships
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/hydrogen-vehicle-danger-3.jpg
Some concrete – not industrial lorry drums full- no, a discrete couple of shovelfulls and no-one is metering no-one.
Looks like Knock Airport is open too…
http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae38/Mosheeen/chanceit.jpg
An fleabite is always good for a laugh!
Go to bed
Yes, this is just another tax. Gormley is all mixed up, like he read a book on the subject but didn’t really understand it, and now can only parrot the main bits. If the government privatised the water provider, set up an independent regulator to set the charges and investment levels, and set binding targets on updating the water infrastructure, then the charges could be justified. To charge without addressing the fundamental problems with the water network is just another tax, dressed up as something that is positive for the environment.
“I think everybody who understands the environment … they know that this is an absolute necessity,” he said.
“I think everybody who understands the environment … they know that this is an absolute necessity,” he said.
“I think everybody who understands the environment….they know that this is an absolute necessity”
What a cunt. If you don’t agree with him, you obviously don’t understand the environment. Condescending prick.
Well, that’s a pile of bullshit.
First off, you’re probably like the thousands of people who say that they won’t pay waste disposal charges, or taxes because of what government policy they disagree with etc. 99% of those people end up just fucking paying, and I’d say you will too.
Secondly, you need to read beyond the headline before you say that the money won’t go towards anything to do with the water system. The announcement was made along with a €1.8 billion investment in doing the exact kind of stuff you’re talking about.
Thirdly, since it’s not a flat fee (like there used to be), there is actually an environmental benefit. Drinking water is expensive to produce, and there’s a significant shortage, especially in the Dublin area. It makes sense that, after a certain minimum quota (which was also announced) the people who use more water should pay for it. Exactly the same way in that people who eat more bread have to pay for it, or people who use more electricity or phone hours have to pay for it. Water’s expensive, and someone has to pay for it. I’d rather it was paid for proportionately, after a reasonable quota, and after people who really can’t afford it are taken out of the net.
Last thing is that there are two kinds of water wastage: the end user wasting it, and the water being lost on the way to the end user. The way to fix the former is to charge for it being used (in the same way we stop people wasting food or any other drink). The way to fix the latter is to invest in the water network. Part of that investment was announced today, but the rest of the money has to come from somewhere. Surely the people who can (a) afford it and (b) use the resource more should have to pay.
Pidge, you’ll do yourself an injury if you’re not careful. Typing up a load of bollocks when you’re bent over with your trousers at your ankles can’t be good for your back.
Looking for a new radio. Heard Auntie Gaybo talking about style icons once too often. Need a plasterer to fix the hole in the wall as well.
Michael Jackson my hole!
Part of that investment was announced today, but the rest of the money has to come from somewhere. Surely the people who can (a) afford it and (b) use the resource more should have to pay.
Get Fingleton to pay for it.
And the bottom line is that the revenue from water charges will not be used to fund the water system. You’re dreaming if you think that’s the case
Given that we are always up to our arses in water in this country having to pay for it is simply further confirmation that the people who run this country are incapable of organising the proverbial piss-up in the proverbial brewery.
Pidge, I thought people who eat bread, pay for all the bread they eat. Have I been paying for bread all this time without needing to?
Dammit.
And yes Pidge I’m aware it costs money to produce drinking water but we already pay enough tax. Providing a water supply is certainly cheaper than throwing billions upon billions at the incompetent fraudsters and Fianna Fail cronies in Anglo-Irish.
It’s just another tax, no matter how they dress it up. And the money it generates will get pissed away same as it always does. And the sheeple will pay it, same as they always do. Anyone with any heart will make the corrupt failers and their scumbag green enablers history at the next election (the one they’re shit-scared of calling)
The great taxation sleight of hand that we have been enduring for 20+ years has been the introduction of ‘charges’ for services that we were already paying for through taxation. Anybody who hasn’t heard of Martin O’Donoghue (FF’s one-time economic guru and mentor to Mary Harney) should look him up. The rot started with him and it continues with a huge range of regressive taxes which are a far greater burden on people with low incomes than on the lightly taxed rich. Water is just the latest and families on low incomes will carry the greater burden of charges.
The other taxation sleight of hand we’ve seen over the last couple of decades is the diversion of tax money away from the provision of services and into developing a system of political clientism. New Labour are the leading exponents of this in the UK, Fianna Fail in Ireland. If you want your party to retain power perpetually then increase tax and spend more and more on expanding the number of those in the pay of the state either directly as employees or as the recipients of benefits. This converts into votes because turkeys do not vote for Christmas.
Looks like Diageo Ireland will be gutted. Thats a fair amount of water they use in Guinness.
Or (drum roll) do businesses not have to pay this new tax?
Because if you think about all the water used by farms, breweries, meat producers etc then domestic drinking or cuppa tay, even showers/baths doesn’t even come close.
So why should ordinary punters who use a dribbel of water in comparison to large scale businesses have to pay?
Or do some of these businesses get to use water for nowt? Wouldn’t mind seeing Diageo’s water bill- just to make sure they haven’t got some cute exemption.
Pretty sure businesses have to pay water rates. As for Guinness, they have their own supply, as far as I know. And they distributed water when the useless fucks at Dublin City Council faffed around with half the city without running water.
Peadar tried to put his finger in a dyke but she called the cops.
Even schools have to pay water rates – often to private companies that have the tender from the local council (eg Veolia). And yes, farmers have to pay charges though some would have their own ground water supply. Dairy farmers use a huge amount of water cleaning and flushing milking parlour systems.
Guinness gave out water a publicity stunt and for no other reason. They’re big on pretending they care about Dublin (while laying off staff and trying to sell off most of the brewery there).
Some blog searcher monkey has probably just picked this up on his little Diageo radar.
Some blog searcher monkey has probably just picked this up on his little Diageo radar.
*dusts off Tin Foil Hat*
They do have agencies to monitor what is said about them on blogs etc.
Sorry- let me re-phrase that. ‘They engage with business partners from the PR and brandbuilding community in order to help monitor and build brand awareness.’
They most certainly do. I deal with the fucking life-sucking cunts every day.
Meters will be put in 2011, bills start arriving 2012. Do you think they will get the bills out before the election?
Bad mannered pushy bint gets home from Spain by being a bad mannered pushy bint:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/lise-hand-journey-home-an-epic-adventure-as-icelands-mordor-darkens-the-skies-2143869.html
Indo Journos are so shit.
The great thing about a pay-for-use water system rather than a tax supported water system is that it is relativly easy to then privatise.
and a 1 , 2 ,3
Raise your spanners and hammers! – lets go smash some meters, im not , paying , another bloody tax! (sing to the tune of …….?)
Who is this McFeely fucker, and what the fuck does it say about us?
some ludicrous environmental benefit
What benefit are they claiming, and why is it ludicrous?