Noonan: Property Tax wont be used for Local Services

Jester252 wrote: »

Doesn't matter to me as the goverment doesn't supply anything in my area.

Letter from Nessa Childers MEP to Eamon Gilmore TD

24 Jul 2013

24th July 2013

Dear Eamon,

I am writing to inform you of my resignation from the Labour party and to state my reasons for doing so.

I have increasingly found myself discouraged and prevented from advocating a distinctive social democratic position within the party. While I have remained constant in my views, the Labour leadership has drifted away from a progressive policy approach. My attitude is vilified as disloyal or opportunistic when, in fact, I am defending and promoting the party’s core values. For example, a particularly low point for me was when I was abandoned by the party leadership for taking a principled stance of opposition to the appointment to the EU Court of Auditors of Mr Kevin Cardiff, who was Secretary General of the Department of Finance when the bank bailout was decided on.

In 2009 I stood for election to the European Parliament in support of progressive and social democratic policies that were designed to put people, jobs and fairness at the heart of Europe. I stood for a progressive Europe, working in the interests of its people. In our manifesto, the number one priority was to safeguard jobs, create new ones and promote smart, environmentally sustainable growth.

I still believe in those principles and policies. Since my election, I have consistently worked in Europe and at home to support and achieve those aims. However, I believe that my ability to work for the policies I was elected on, and still support, is no longer compatible with membership of the party.

I did not support the decision to enter into coalition with Fine Gael in 2011 but I still hoped that Labour would shape its policy in accordance with our social democratic values and help bring the country back from bankruptcy and rebuild our economy in a way that would be fair and would support communities. I acknowledge that Labour ministers have done some good work. However, the government’s overall policy now seems to be one of never-ending, pointless austerity for austerity’s sake – a reckless pursuit of moveable economic targets that has failed on unemployment and emigration and is imposing unfair and frankly unsustainable pressures on hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. It is a policy of cutting services like health, education and social protection, while bankers, big corporates and the wealthy are allowed dodge their share of the burden.

This is a profoundly immoral way to run our country. It is not compatible with Labour’s traditional policies or with the manifesto on which I was elected with the Socialists and Democrats Group of the European Parliament. Unfortunately, the party leadership seems determined to pursue that course in the hope that ‘it will all sort itself out’ in time for an election in 2016, even though it has manifestly failed.

The policy of austerity is discredited in Europe and, increasingly, at home. Reputable bodies like TASC, the Nevin Economic Research Institute and Social Justice Ireland have demonstrated that there is a viable alternative to the policies of ‘slash and cut’:

no more cuts in public spending,
an increase in social protection,
make the wealthiest ten per cent pay more taxes,
make banks pay more through a Financial Transactions Tax,
make sure multinationals pay a minimum of 10% in profits tax,
and invest in a jobs/economic stimulus package.
Last April, I made an initial stand against the government’s direction by resigning from the Parliamentary Labour Party. I said that I no longer wanted to support a government that is implementing harmful, conservative policies and is actually hurting people. Since then, Labour’s failure in government has gone from bad to worse and the party has committed to even more austerity in the next Budget and beyond. Since that point I have experienced what could be termed a progressive destruction of hope that the situation would improve. Therefore I am following through on my earlier decision and from now on I intend to work independently within the Socialists and Democrats Group for the principles and policies I believe in.

Unlike the Labour leadership, I want to fight for a progressive and fairer alternative to austerity and I want to continue to work for it in the European Parliament with my Social Democratic colleagues. As you discovered recently in the negotiations on the EU Budget, the Parliament now has robust lawmaking powers and is arguably more influential on our lives than even the Dáil.

I know that there are many party members who believe as I do about government policy. I wish them well in their continuing membership of the party, and will continue to be available to them, and work with them, as their elected representative in Europe but, regrettably, I cannot remain in the party. For the sake of our people, it is critical that the 2014 elections to the Parliament are a first step in breaking the conservative free-marketers majority in the Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the Commission. That is what I plan to work and campaign for, and in next year’s European elections I will do so as an independent candidate within the European Socialists and Democrats Group.

Yours sincerely,

Nessa Childers MEP

squod wrote: »

To everyone who insisted this wouldn't happen in various property tax threads on boards........


In yer face people.

zerks wrote: »

I see the champions of this tax are very thin on the ground here this morning.

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Don't own a property?

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

As I type this, there is a fella from the council taking pictures of the water meters and then he is taking a picture of each house.

Why is he taking a pic of the house and shouldn't he be asking my permission first? It's a private estate and the council have not taken over the road.