I want my multi-million house back

I thought they abolished domestic rates and motor tax ( and I think water charges) to buy an election , it worked ..

Okay - so the property rates ( and water rates outside of Dublin ) weren't a give away ? But motor tax was ?

that's correct.

property tax and water rates were contributing to severe hardship to quite a number and there was no option but to remove them to help struggling people who were finding it impossible to pay.

nonsense. It was to buy votes, and it worked. The effect on local authority services - from housing, to water, to street cleaning, to libraries, to many other things - was and is disastrous.

it wasn't to buy votes, there were a serious amount of people struggling under the weight of having to pay those charges.

government chose to under fund them, that is why there was a short fall, it wasn't because of the removal of those unnecessary charges, government could have afforded to pay for those services.

There is no comparison between domestic rates and the current property tax. According to my father, who used to have to pay rates, the current equivalent of domestic rates would be multiple thousands per year as opposed to hundreds of euros which is the case now

i haven't decided which ones yet, i might do them all or maybe just some.

the various departments can take on the responsibilities.

I think SF is going to get a big fright and a huge wake up call when they win the next election, and I think they will.... their time has come.

Cut taxes, houses for all, the rich will pay lol. There aren't enough "rich" people in this country to make a tiny dent in revenue lost from abolishing LPT, not a chance. I also am flummoxed at their policy of abolishing USC, the only tax out there that is impossible to avoid. Best thing that ever happened to our tax code. If they wanted to do anything to help the downtrodden then exempt the first €x of income or something, but imagine allowing the wealthy a free pass also. Bizarre.

SF will have to tell us where they are planning on making up the shortfall from their generous tax reduction policies, while still expecting houses and services for all. It will be very different when they have to balance the books, not like now where they are excellent hurlers on the ditch. Will be a shock I think.

whatever the costs would be, i don't have access to all of the mountains of necessary information to do a comprehensive review sadly, so would e unable to give specific figures.

but i do think over all the costs would be less in the long run as you would require less high level management positions.

pay for politicians in ireland would be a few million at least, more with all of the allowences and expences i should think, i would be surprised if there were no savings to be made anyway.

The original video, for those who don't remember.

It was an election gimmick.Rates might have been high then but they were used effectively.The sale in 1977 has never been topped by any party since.it was the start of an escalation in the national debt.The current debt of 280 billion + doesn't stop the resident crop in the Dail making promises though.

I'm not doubting when some of the facts came to light about the Case OP highlighted, I was quite shocked. But sadly cases such as these, involving couples or indeed individuals with vast and seperate property portfolios take away / deflect from literally 10"s of thousands of ordinary citizens, some who made genuine mistakes, most who found themselves in serious arrears through no fault of theirs and for a host of different reasons.

I do not subscribe to the notion, arrears and repossessions are the reason Irelands mortgage interest rates are the 2nd highest in Europe. Ireland outrageous mortgage interest rates have been extortionate for 40 years, that's just a simple fact.

I was struck to learn last week, 132 repossessions cases listed at one Midlands circuit court were none involved high net worth individuals, all involved families or individuals on the bread line. I can only assume every Circuit court around the country is dealing with similar numbers and probably much higher in larger towns, Cities.

I've no shame in admitting my own challenges, albeit I will say health challenges impacted my Mortgage problems, which I might add were small in comparison to some cases I've read about, my own situation, thankfully almost resolved and I might add, with no hand outs, discounts or costs to anyone but myself. The vulture fund who purchased my mortgage from one of the 3 main banks remaining at a substantial discount obviously incurred administrative costs, but my heart bleeds for them, my case never went legal as such.

I constantly hear the narrative that people just decide not to pay their mortgages, Bury their heads in the sand etc, and whilst I'm absolutely sure this does happen, I'd reckon its a very small percentage that don't engage or pay something, interest only etc. I certainly would not be defending the couple mentioned in the OP. I also should mention, dealing with faceless vulture funds is an absolute nightmare, Ironically despite my genuine efforts and with small arrears, I had to engage Mabs to actually get responses and access to documentation, statements etc. They were shocked by some of the correspondence from the Vulture fund I was dealing with and indeed lack of communication from them and it turns out I wasn't alone in facing challenges dealing with VF"s so I just ask people to be a little more objective in their assumptions. Yes, their are chancer's out there but the vast majority of cases involve quite ordinary decent people trying to save their homes, most making an effort.

Re LPT/Water charges and rural living, I personally had no issue with small water charges, I've always paid for water either by way of a group water scheme and now a well with pump at substantial cost. Rural dwellers see practically zero return from paying LPT, Roads maintenance Alledgedly paid for through motor taxation, Street Lighting (none exists) in villages this is Alledgedly paid through business rates, Sewage/ Waste, I maintain my own septic tank/ water treatments, the list goes on and on. I do pay the smaller band of LPT but won't be happy if it increases.

So, that's my Saturday morning contribution over, I won't be getting into a back and fourth re mortgage repossessions, arrears, just felt it mentioning the other side of this story, which has by no means gone away, I actually believe its going to get worse over the coming year.