éirígí Tir Chonaill

Minihan Slams ‘Bank Welfare Tax’ and Calls for Campaign of Non-Payment

27/07/11

éirígí Cllr Louise Minihan

éirígí Dublin City councillor Louise Minihan has slammed the new Twenty-Six County household tax and called on people to join a mass campaign of non-payment.

Speaking from her Ballyfermot constituency this morning, Minihan said: “Yesterday, the Dublin government confirmed its intention to introduce another regressive tax, which will once again hit working families the hardest. Instead of calling it a household charge, the Dublin government should come clean and call it a Bank Welfare Tax because that is exactly what it is.

“In any normal society, taxation is used as a means to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor but, in this state, it does the direct opposite. Millions of people are being forced to endure very real hardship to fund a welfare system for the private banks. This generation and generations to come are being asked to pay hundreds of billions of euro of debt to protect the golden circle that has ruled the Twenty-Six Counties since the foundation of the state.”

Highlighting the unfair nature of the new household tax, Minihan added: “Phil Hogan’s new tax is being introduced at a flat rate, regardless of the financial status of a household or the value of the property in question. So a low-income family in Ballyfermot will be expected to pay the same amount as a millionaire banker living on Shrewsbury Road. Then, the revenue raised will be used to fund an unjust bailout of the private banks. Everything about this tax is unfair and unjust.

“The household tax, along with the other austerity measures that are being foisted upon us, will further widen the gap between the rich and the poor in this state. A just and stable society cannot be built upon such fundamental injustice and inequality.”

Encouraging people to refuse to pay the new household tax, Minihan said: “We in éirígí are encouraging people to resist the new household tax. The people of Greece have shown that organised mass resistance can produce results. We in Ireland need to take our lead from them and get onto the streets to challenge those who think they can impose endless austerity measures without sanction or resistance from the people.

“Unlike the previous tax hikes or cuts to public services, people have a very effective means of resisting this new tax – they can refuse to pay it. If sufficient numbers of people join the campaign of non-payment, the Dublin government will have no choice but to scrap the whole idea. Over the next few months, éirígí will be working with other progressive groups and within working class communities to build a mass campaign of non-payment of this tax.”