It is not Council workers job to collect household tax: says union boss
A TOP trade unionist claims it is not the job of local authority workers to knock on doors in pursuit of the controversial Household Charge.
The vice president of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions said today: “I do not think it is the job of local authority workers to engage in a propaganda exercise in favour of payment or otherwise.”.
“It’s not their role – that’s the role of the Fine Gael party or the Coalition, if they want to do it.
“I believe workers have the right to exercise their conscience and say: I’m not going to do that’.”
But the chief executive of the Local Government Management Agency, Paul McSweeney, said that staff who refuse to do so could face action.
One door they need not call on in any case is that of 81 year old grandmother Mai Fitz-Gerald.
She has lived through 26 different governments and experienced several crippling recessions, but she has had finally had enough.
The grandmother of nine has vowed to go to prison before she will pay the €100 household levy.
“I am very adamant about this. It is another tax and we have been hit too much. I will do jail, it does not bother me now,” she said.
Originally from Lattin-Cullen, Co Tipperary, Mrs Fitz-Gerald moved to Limerick in the 1960s.
Her husband Frank died 25 years ago, and she has four daughters and one son. She says she will “definitely not” be changing her stance on the €100 charge.
Mrs Fitz-Gerald has just a few requirements should she end up behind bars.
“I am a pioneer all my life. I don’t drink or smoke. So long as I can get Mass in the morning, get the papers in and a few good books.”
She said the Government had to scrap the household levy.
“I think this is just another tax on people and the people that brought it in don’t understand at all how others are living because they (TDs) have pregnant wallets.
“They suffer from a multitude of deranged ideas,” she added.
With the Fine Gael-led Government just over a year in power, Mrs Fitz-Gerald said she believed it was the same as its predecessors.
“They (the Government) should be looking after the elderly better than they are looking after them. They cut us in our fuel this year — imagine!”
Her father was a classmate of Sean Treacy, who was involved in the Soloheadbeg ambush in 1919.
“At my age, you have to think of the way the country goes. It is gone — buggered.”
Mrs Fitz-Gerald said the only harsher time she had experienced in the country was life during World War Two.
Ireland’s Property prices fall by 18% ‘new CSO stats reveal’
Irish residential property prices have slumped almost 50 per cent since the 2007 peak.
Residential property prices fell by almost 18 per cent in the year to February, new data from the Central Statistics Office showed today.
Over the month, prices were 2.2 per cent lower than in January.
The decline of 17.8 per cent showed an increase in pace from the previous month, when the annual decline registered 17.4 per cent, and the monthly decline was 1.9 per cent.
In Dublin, property prices were 20.3 per cent lower year on year, and 1.2 per cent down on the month. That compares with a 16.4 per cent decline in the rest of the country, and a monthly fall of 3 per cent.
House prices in Dublin fell by 0.7 per cent in the month, bringing them to a decline of 20.2 per cent over the year and 56 per cent lower than their peak in early 2007. Apartment prices, meanwhile, fell by 22.9 per cent in the capital over the year, to 62 per cent off their peak.
The decline is yet another blow to consumer confidence.
“The bottom line is that consumers will want to see the housing market stabilising before they feel confident about the economy overall but we think prices have further to fall,” said Bloxham’s chief economist Alan McQuaid.
Across the rest of the State, residential property has fallen by 45 per cent in price since the peak of the property boom, with CSO statistics putting the average fall for the country at 49 per cent.
However, the CSO statistics do not take into account cash sales of properties. Anecdotal evidence from estate agents indicate that a large number of sales are conducted in this manner.
Recent surveys have estimated that property prices have actually fallen by 55 per cent to 60 per cent from the peak. Davy Stockbrokers said prices could decline by as much as 70 per cent, with the market showing no sign of stabilising.
Constraints imposed by banks on credit and a shrinking pool of potential first time buyers are expected to drag on demand for some time.
“We don’t see any significant improvement in the housing market until the employment situation gets better and bank lending returns to some sort of ‘normality’, which is still some way off in our view,” said Mr McQuaid.
He predicted another double-digit decline in 2012, with the current 10 per cent forecast likely to be outstripped, given the declines in the first two months of the year.
Organ donations in Ireland at highest level during 2011
Last year was a record year for organ donation with 93 deceased donors, a 60% increase on the previous year, according to the Irish Kidney Association. 248 organ transplants were carried out last year in Ireland
Last year was a record year for organ donation with 93 deceased donors, a 60% increase on the previous year, according to the Irish Kidney Association.
This allowed for 248 organ transplants to be performed.
The association has called for more funding for kidney transplantation given the savings it can make by getting more patients off dialysis.
IKA Chief Executive Mark Murphy said that 650 people are currently waiting for a life-saving organ transplant and there are 1,795 on dialysis.
Mr Murphy was speaking at the launch of National Donor Awareness Week.
He called for the establishment of an Irish Organ Donor Registry to allow the public to voluntarily identify themselves on a database, similar to the practice in many countries, including the UK.
Mr Murphy also said that 2011 saw the lowest number of road traffic deaths, dispelling the myth that most organs came from such accidents.
There are now 2,800 people enjoying extended life as a result of having an organ transplant.
National Donor Awareness Week runs from 31 March to 7 April.
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